Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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66. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality the amount of funding provided under the capital plan for the information technology infrastructure across her department; the amount spent to date; the progress to date; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [19289/17]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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The Government's Capital Plan provides for capital investment in the Justice Sector of some €875 million over the lifetime of the Plan, approximately €400 million of which relates to ICT expenditure.

As the Deputy will be aware, a significant proportion relates to ICT infrastructure in respect of a number of bodies under the aegis of my Department, including the Irish Prisons Service, the Courts Service, Property Registration Authority and an Garda Síochána. As the Deputy will be aware, these bodies have their own Votes, separate to my Department's Vote.

Irish Prison Service

The capital budget for IT infrastructure has allowed the Irish Prison Service to enhance CCTV systems, upgrade prisoner telephone systems, improve security, enhance prisoner information systems and educational services available to prisoners.€1.3 million was spent in 2016 and there has been no expenditure to 31 March 2017 from a budget of €0.980 million.

Courts Service

The capital budget allocation for ICT in 2017 is €10.32m. As of 31 March 2017, €1.38m of this allocation has been spent. This is slightly below expectation (€1.97m) due to timing of invoices. Of the €10.32m allocation, €3m has been allocated to the ICT requirements in respect of seven court building projects due to be completed this year under PPP. Additional capital spending for the Courts Service includes general systems maintenance, support and software licenses which will cost €3.59m. An ongoing programme of replacing legacy systems and refreshing equipment will cost a further €2.34m. A total of €890k has been allocated for enhancements to various Courts Service case management applications (including the Criminal System, a Register for the Office of the Legal Costs Adjudicator, eLicensing, Personal Insolvency, Small Claims, Court of Appeal, Supreme Court and Family Law). In addition €500,000 has been allocated for General Telecommunications including rollout of the Government Cloud Network.

Property Registration Authority

The capital budget allocation for ICT in the Property Registration Authority (PRA) is €560,000 in each year 2016 and 2017, totalling €1.12m. Expenditure to date totals €242,208 which is lower than expected due to procedural delays around procurement. However, a number of projects are being pursued in 2017, most significantly an ICT infrastructure upgrade project which is on schedule.

An Garda Síochána

The most significant level of funding provided under the capital plan for information technology infrastructure in respect of bodies under the aegis of the Department of Justice and Equality has been provided to An Garda Síochána. Detailed information in relation to funding provided under the capital plan for information technology infrastructure for An Garda Síochána is outlined in my response to Question Number 34-39 of today's date.

Department of Justice and Equality

My Department also operates an Information and Communications Technology (ICT) shared service under a managed service contract servicing 3000 users across the Department as well as many of the agencies under its aegis. This contract also covers the provision of infrastructure, which is therefore not accounted for in the capital budget. The Department has a limited capital budget to cover hardware not encompassed by the managed service contract for example in respect of PCs and network equipment. The yearly capital expenditure budget for 2017 is €350,000 of which approximately €30,000 has been invoiced to date.