Gardaí to spend over €100m to revamp and service IT system
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An Garda Siochána (AGS) is to spend more than €100m in overhauling and maintaining its various IT systems.
The gardaí have gone to tender for the provision of enterprise solutions for the management of its IT services and assets at a projected cost of €12m over a five-year period, with the requirements for same to remain confidential.
Separately, the force is to spend a further €96m in recruiting a team of IT experts on a two-year contract to provide maintenance and support for its existing applications from November 2023.
The policing systems which will be the subject of said maintenance include the main Garda PULSE (Police Using Leading Systems Effectively) database, investigations and property management services, the fixed charge penalty system (for the delivery and recording of penalty points), the Garda vetting system, and “others to meet very specific policing needs”, per the contract invitation.
At present, the force’s systems are operated predominantly via Microsoft interfaces, with software giant Oracle used as the AGS database platform.
An Garda Siochána’s IT section has initiated a project management framework, it said, consisting of five phases, which the successful tenderer would be expected to bring to fruition.
The 23-strong team handed the contract will consist of developers with both specific and general expertise, multiple analysts and systems architects, and a project manager, AGS said, with that team to operate out of the Garda IT centre based on Conygham Road, near the Phoenix Park in north Dublin.
The expenditure is a major financial investment on the part of a force often criticised in recent times for the lack of funds specifically targeted at bolstering AGS’s manpower, notably in Dublin’s city centre where €10m was recently committed by Justice Minister Helen McEntee in an effort to boost the visibility of Garda patrols.
Last July, the force committed to spend €4m on recruitment specialists to assist with the hiring of new staff over the next two years, with a further €260,000 to be spent on engaging actors to engage in role play with officers engaged in specialist training.
With the force seeking to increase its headcount to a workforce of 15,000 members, 2,000 Garda reserves and 4,000 civilian employees, AGS said there would be an overall requirement for up to 2,364 additional staff across grades and disciplines under the recruitment programme.
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