Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)
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35. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the services that a company (details supplied) provided for his Department between May 2011 and 31 December 2013, and for which it was paid €6,069,815. [3225/14]

Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)
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My Department makes payments to the company concerned for the management of two essential IT systems – Passport Service Systems and Human Resources Management System.

The company is responsible for the support, maintenance and upkeep of all Passport Service IT systems. Passport Service IT systems comprise a complex range of technologies to enable receipt and processing of passport applications forms and the specialised production of the high quality and secure Irish passport booklet of which 630,000 were produced in 2013.

The company concerned is the first and single point of contact for all technical support issues related to the Passport Service IT systems, which includes being responsible for, and managing, the performance of a number of other companies who supplied specialised elements of the systems. Payments reflect the technical nature and breadth of the skills required to maintain Passport Service IT systems, involving on-site and extended hours of cover during the peak passport issuance season, the supply and installation of spare parts and components, and proactive monitoring arrangements to warn of potential systems issues. The company is responsible for all software and hardware needed for Passport Service IT systems, including payments to third parties for appropriate licensing, support and on-going maintenance of these systems.

The company is also responsible for providing IT support for the Department’s Human Resources Management IT System under a central agreement with the Department of Public Expenditure & Reform. The Human Resources Management IT System enables the Department to effectively manage its workforce. A total of €53,278 for the Department’s Human Resources Management IT System has been paid to the company for the period in question.

Both contracts were awarded on foot of open EU procurement exercises. A breakdown of the payments to the company concerned is €1,525,681 for May 2011 to December 2011, €2,385,878 for 2012 and €2,158,256 for 2013.