Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

In relation to my Department, I wish to advise that ICT services are provided by the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer (OGCIO) under the Department of Public Expenditure NDP Delivery and Reform.

OGCIO’s Managed Desktop and Managed Hosting services uses a number of data centres which are ISO 27001 certified and are located across Dublin City and the greater Dublin area. These data centres are Government owned facilities. To ensure the continued integrity and security of the services provided by the Department and across the public service, the exact location of these data centres cannot be supplied.

The bodies under the aegis of my Department that use data centres have advised as follows:

The Central Bank of Ireland uses two data centres within the Greater Dublin area. Both data centres were selected via a public procurement competition in 2012 and are within 20 kilometres of the Bank’s North Wall Quay campus, as per industry guidelines.

The Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman (FSPO), for operational and security reasons, does not disclose details of security systems and processes, including the use of data centres, which could in any way compromise security efforts.

For operational and security reasons, the Investor Compensation Company DAC (ICCL) cannot identify the data centres used, as to do so may compromise those efforts. In particular, it is not considered appropriate to disclose information which might assist criminals to identify potential vulnerabilities in operational arrangements. Therefore, it is not considered appropriate to disclose particular arrangements in place in relation to data centres used other than to indicate that where data centres are used by the ICCL, they are located in the greater Dublin area and are within a 30km radius of its head office.

In respect of the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC), information technology (IT) infrastructure is contained within two data centres located in the Dublin region. The recommended distance between data centre locations is within the standard guidelines, and IBRC has implemented a fully remote access solution to both sites. Disclosing any further information on the exact location of the Data Centres would be deemed a security risk.

The Irish Fiscal Advisory Council uses an IT system provider which has its own data centres. The Council cannot choose the data centre locations but choose the area where their data resides, which in this case is Europe. The Fiscal Council’s data is primarily hosted in an Irish data centre which is located in Leinster. It is considered inappropriate to disclose any further information in relation to the location of data centres used by the Fiscal Council as this may pose potential operational and security risks.

The National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) provides business, support services and systems to the National Asset Management Agency (NAMA), the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland (SBCI) and Home Building Finance Ireland (HBFI). Information and communications technology (ICT) services are one such service provided to these bodies and managed internally by the NTMA. The NTMA has two data centre locations within the Leinster region. Disclosing further information in relation to the location of NTMA data centres is not appropriate and may pose potential operational and security risks.

The Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General does not use data centres directly. The Office only uses data centres indirectly through the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer, as its IT service provider.

The Office of the Revenue Commissioners operates two data centres in the Dublin city and greater Dublin area. The primary data centre was established during the 1970s and has been consistently updated since then. These upgrades have enabled Revenue to provide hosting services for over 50 other Government bodies in this data centre. Revenue established a secondary data centre in 1990 which was originally used as a business continuity data centre. In the mid 2000’s, the secondary data centre was upgraded to primary status to better support high availability 24/7, 365 days per year operation in a combined active/active configuration with Revenue’s other data centre. Revenue’s data centres are accredited to ISO 27001 (Data Security) and ISO 22301 (Business Continuity) standards. The distance between the data centres and Revenue offices is not an issue and both centres provide computing services to all Revenue offices, staff and taxpayers countrywide over high-speed data links. Revenue’s data centres are operated by Revenue’s IT staff on a 24/7 basis.

The ICT infrastructure of the Tax Appeals Commission is managed by the OGCIO. Data in respect of the Commission is hosted in data centres across the greater Dublin area. For security reasons, the exact location of these data centres cannot be supplied.

Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The construction of the Data Centre is underway and is on time and within budget. The construction of the building is expected to be completed by Q2 2025. The application for the electrical supply was issued and accepted by ESB networks before any moratoriums were introduced. No delays are expected.