394. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Social Protection the total expenditure by his Department on ICT contractors and consultants in each of the past five years and to date in 2026; the number of ICT contractors currently engaged by the Department; the number of permanent civil servants currently employed in ICT roles; and if he will provide the information in tabular form. [66735/26]

395. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Social Protection whether his Department has conducted any analysis comparing the cost of ICT contractors with directly employed civil service ICT staff; if so, if he will provide a copy of that analysis, including the average comparative cost across ICT roles on an anonymised and aggregated basis, with individual contractor rates or commercially sensitive supplier information redacted as necessary. [66734/26]

I propose to take Questions Nos. 394 and 395 together.

All of the services and operations provided by my Department are highly IT dependent, supporting business activities including 89 million individual payments, ongoing management of 140 schemes and services, over 3.7 million income support applications and over 900,000 employment support service activities. Additionally, the Department’s online platforms process over 8.3 million transactions and over 4.8 MyGovID accounts. Given the scale, importance and scope of its technical operations, the Department is also a target for cyber-attacks, which requires ongoing investment for prevention and for business continuity contingency.

The procurement of ICT contractors and consultants is essential to support my Department in providing high quality service to the public in a cost effective and efficient manner. All expenditure is closely monitored, and companies are only engaged for essential work, following a rigorous assessment of need and where the required competencies do not exist in-house.

The information sought by the Deputy in relation to expenditure on consultancy is published on the Gov.ie website at Department of Social Protection Policy on Procurement: www.gov.ie/en/department-of-social-protection/organisation-information/department-of-social-protection-policy-on-procurement/#what-we-purchase. Cumulative expenditure on IT External Services and IT Consultancy by the Department up to the end of August 2026 was €41,400,744, of which €183,488 related to IT consultancy costs.

Details of the number of permanent civil servants in ICT roles employed by the Department and the number of ICT contractors engaged by the Department as at July 2026 set out below:

The number of external ICT contract resources is subject to change, based on demand and subject to availability of suitably skilled internal resources. Due to the dynamic nature of the ICT industry and every increasing demand, the Department will always have a judicious mix of internal and external resources to react swiftly and with agility to peaks in demand and where rapid development of IT solutions is required.

Information on external contractor costs cannot be disclosed as it is provided in confidence and on a confidential and commercially sensitive basis. My Department has recently developed a new ICT Skills Strategy, with the aim of developing a highly skilled ICT workforce to support service delivery and respond to evolving needs. This has included engagement with third-level institutions to recruit staff at graduate level, which has supported a successful initiative to establish an IT hub in the Northwest.

While the Department utilises its own IT staff to the fullest extent possible, ICT skills are in short supply and there is an ongoing requirement for contracted staff provided by specialist IT companies.