Public Procurement Contracts
Dail Éireann — 2026-07-07
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Cian O'Callaghan (SD), Dublin Bay North

What I do not understand is why alternatives to Microsoft have not been at least explored as part of this process. The German state of Schleswig-Holstein recently moved 30,000 staff from Microsoft to LibreOffice, Linux, Thunderbird and Open-Xchange. It is saving more than €15 million a year. The senior Minister has just told us we should always be looking for efficiencies and reforms and I agree. Why have they not been looked for in this process? The French police, the Gendarmerie nationale, switched over 100,000 desktops to Linux. They will save roughly €500 million, half a billion, over 15 years. Are these not the efficiencies and reforms that should at least be considered by the Government? The German Federal Chancellery moved to openDesk purely to enhance its digital sovereignty. The Irish Government is leading the Council of the European Union at the moment. We are looking for more European sovereignty, for example with the digital euro, so why are these things not being considered? I am not saying they should be moved en masse overnight but surely the alternatives should be explored in terms of value for money and whether there are better options out there.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-07-07/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:07+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-07-07