Aidan Farrelly (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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1175. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality if his attention has been drawn to other State agencies and if his own Government Department have used any of the same IT services providers as the Arts Council (details supplied) and have experienced cost overruns or encountered delays or other issues (details supplied) with them; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12052/25]

Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
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All central Government Departments, including the Department of Justice, are subject to EU and national public procurement rules. These rules promote an open, competitive, and non-discriminatory tendering regime which delivers value for money for the taxpayer.

My Department has not engaged the services of Codec. However, I am informed that within my Department's Vote, Codec is under contract with the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (GSOC) for the delivery of an Enterprise Case Management System. The purpose of which is to enable GSOC to process complaints and to manage resulting case investigations in an efficient and timely manner in line with the legislation, both current and imminent, which provides for GSOC’s statutory objectives, functions and powers. This contract commenced in 2024; to conclude in 2028.

Codec also held two contracts for the purpose of providing ICT equipment to GSOC in the past five years. Quotations for this ICT equipment were sought from various vendors and Codec was the most economically advantageous quote. Both of these contracts have now expired.

I am further informed by the Data Protection Commission, which has its own Vote, that they engaged the services of Codec in 2018 to build a Case Management System (CMS). The initial contract value was €427k. During the lifetime of the contract, which ran until 2022, a number of agreed and controlled change requests were made to the value of €208k, resulting in a total spend of €635k.

My Department operates a standard for all major projects under its Vote. A dedicated Project, Programme and Portfolio Oversight Committee was created to strengthen our governance of such work. The Committee is chaired by a member of the Management Board of my Department and includes two external members in addition to a number of senior officials from across the Department. In the case of all major projects, a business case is submitted to the Committee. Such business cases are assessed under a range of criteria, including feasibility, alignment with strategy and existing infrastructure, the benefits to be accrued, and value for money.

The Committee also keeps existing projects and programmes under review to make sure they are delivering the expected outcomes, and are within the agreed budget, time and scope. Projects costing in excess of €2m are subject to an external and independent peer review process. Where such peer review groups exist, these provide quarterly assurance reports to the Project, Programme and Portfolio Oversight Committee, which in turn provides quarterly reports to the Management Board of the Department.

This governance approach ensures information on the progress of all projects is constantly reviewed, and there are multiple opportunities for matters to be escalated where any issues arise. If there is to be any change to the scope, timeframe or budget of a project, there is a requirement for a formal change request to be documented - this is considered in the same manner as a new business case, and further expenditure is only authorised on occasions where the Project, Programme and Portfolio Oversight Committee (and if relevant a project, steering or programme board) has approved same.