Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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102. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the capital allocation across his Department in each of the years 2018 to 2022. [20455/18]

Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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103. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform his Department's capital allocation for projects under way and projects already tendered or committed to spending contractually. [20472/18]

Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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104. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform his Department's capital allocation in each of the years 2018 to 2022 disaggregated according to capital allocated to projects under way, projects contractually committed to and projects yet to be initiated. [20489/18]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 102 to 104, inclusive, together.

The purpose of capital investment undertaken by my Department and the Office of Government Procurement (OGP) is to deliver greater effectiveness and efficiency across the Civil and Public Service.  The nature of many of the reform initiatives set out in ambitious reform plans, such as Our Public Service 2020 and the Public Service ICT Strategy, is that up-front investment is sometimes required to deliver service improvements and greater consolidation and efficiency across the Civil and Public Service in the medium and long term.  Therefore, this can involve my Department taking on additional costs, including capital costs, in the short-term. 

The Department’s capital allocation for the years 2018 to 2022 is set out in the following table:

The Office of the Government Chief Information Officer (OGCIO), which is also part of my Department, invests and develops IT infrastructure on behalf of my Department, the Department of Finance, the National Shared Services Office and the OGP.  However, its broader role is to leverage ICT to gain efficiencies and to improve the effectiveness of service delivery across the Civil and Public Service.  

The OGCIO takes the lead on driving forward the implementation of the Public Service ICT Strategy, working with Departments and agencies across the Public Service.  Capital investment in the period will be allocated to projects that support the five strategic themes of the strategy which are; Build to Share, Digital First, Data as an Enabler, Improve Governance, and Increase Capability.  For instance, under the Build to Share pillar of the Strategy, the OGCIO continues to enhance the Government Network that has been in existence for many years.  As a result of this investment, the Network will operate at higher speeds, providing high capacity services to the wider Public Service.  The enhanced network will support agencies in the roll-out of new applications, new ways of working and engaging with the citizen. 

The OGP continues to invest in its IT systems to deliver on its mandate to drive procurement savings to the State.  For example, the OGP is continuing to invest in the eTenders platform to support national and EU procurement requirements.  A CRM / Workflow Management System is also being implemented to support OGP’s Customer Service function and sourcing activities of the OGP and its sector partners.