Written answers

Wednesday, 11 June 2025

Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade

Departmental Contracts

Photo of Mairéad FarrellMairéad Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)
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12. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if he will provide the list of capital projects for IT services, by his Department or bodies under its aegis, which had contracts valued in excess of €1million that failed to reach completion; the value that was written off, for the years 2022, 2023 and 2024, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30804/25]

Photo of Simon HarrisSimon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The Department's ICT projects are managed and delivered under its Digital Transformation Strategy. A decision was made in 2023 that the contract for a new Passport Integrated and Processing System should be concluded due to the contract terms not being met. The project is now being delivered under an alternate contract.

YEAR 2022 2023 2024
Amount Nil €218,230 Nil
The Passport Integrated and Processing System (PIPS) was to replace the old back office, passport operating system. This system is called APS (Automated Passport System) was developed 20 years ago and is at end of life. This system facilitates the workflow around the processing of applications and their approval/rejection (currently handling in excess of 1 million application per annum). Following an EU procurement process the contract was signed in September 2021 and the contractor was appointed to develop this new back office operating system, called PIPS. The sum of €218,230, was paid to the contractor on 9 December 2021 on successful completion of the first milestone in accordance with the terms of the contract. As milestone payments to the contractor were conditional upon achievement of milestones no further milestone payments were made. In line with advice from CSSO the contract was terminated in September 2023, and for accounting purposes, as previously published and as reflected in the 2023 vote28 appropriation account, the sum of €218,230 was written off, in accordance with accounting principles. No termination payments were made by the Department to the contractor on foot of the mutually agreed early termination of the contract.

Conscious of the need to replace the old APS system the Department has identified and appointed a contractor to design and implement a new system. This work is progressing well with phase 1 scheduled to roll out later this year and implementation to be completed in 2026.

Photo of Mairéad FarrellMairéad Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)
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13. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if he will provide, the list of capital projects, by his Department or bodies under its aegis, which had contracts valued in excess of €5million, which ran over cost in 2023, along with a description of the contract, the initial price and final price provided, in tabular form. [30822/25]

Photo of Simon HarrisSimon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The Department had no capital projects in excess of €5 million which ran over cost in 2023.

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