Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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333. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation if his Department has re-negotiated external information and technology consultancy contracts and costs since March 2011; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23572/15]

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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My Department does not generally re-negotiate IT consultancy contracts. IT consultancy contracts are normally placed for a fixed period or for a defined piece of work. If further support or development is required when a contract expires, this would be the subject of a new tender process, rather than re-negotiating existing contract terms. For some IT support costs, such as proprietary system support, where open tendering is not always possible, my Department is engaged in an on-going process to ensure that such costs are kept to a minimum. In general, my Department has engaged in a process of ICT support cost management, through the use of tendering, retiring older technologies, and insourcing supports where specialist skills become available in-house. In 2014, this pro-active approach to IT support cost management gave rise to identifiable savings which in a full year will amount to €65,000 on the 2014 figure.