Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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73. To ask the Taoiseach the amount expended on the renewal of licences (details supplied) by his Department since 2009 to date in 2019; and the amount projected to be spent on the renewal of such licences by his Department over the next five years. [36419/19]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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IBM Notes, known as Lotus Notes prior to 2012, is used in the Department of the Taoiseach and is appropriately licensed. Although some of the core functionality associated with IBM Notes has been migrated to more modern alternatives, IBM Notes continues to be an important business application which is used throughout the Department on a daily basis.

Email, calendaring and some other functions are no longer provided by IBM Notes. Other functions will be replaced over time but are contingent on the availability of appropriate alternatives such as the Financial Management Shared Services Project.

Since 2009, my Department has paid a total of €145,170.23 for IBM Notes (formerly Lotus Notes) licences. Licences for IBM Notes are on a ‘Per User’ basis and are procured through a competitive procurement process.

In the last ten years, 3 different companies have been successful in the various procurement processes undertaken for IBM Notes licences.

Although subject to further procurement processes, it is anticipated that over the coming years that the annual expenditure in relation to IBM Notes licences will be broadly similar to previous years.

However, the IBM Notes product was acquired by HCL Technologies at the end of June 2019 and there is a possibility that the licensing model may change during that transition.

Full details of costs associated with IBM Notes licences from 2009 to date in 2019 are provided in the table below and all costs are provided inclusive of VAT.