The ICT Unit at the Houses of the Oireachtas has issued a massive multimillion-euro tender that will see civil servants, senators and TDs kitted out with more than 1,400 desktop and notebook computers as well as a monster consignment of more than 40 servers.
The ICT Unit is seeking a variety of equipment and is prepared to conduct business with a number of consortia working together under the auspices of a prime contractor.
With a deadline set for 1 September, the ICT Unit says the objective of the tender is to fulfil the IT equipment needs of the Office of the Houses of the Oireachtas over a specified period. The contract is expected to run for a two- or three-year period, at the end of which the Houses of the Oireachtas are obliged to go to tender again.
In the first of several lots, the Houses of the Oireachtas are seeking up to 1,000 desktop personal computers. In a second lot they are seeking an additional 400 notebook computers.
In a third lot the Government is seeking up to 800 laser colour printers followed by up to 200 laser monochrome printers in a fourth lot. In a fifth lot they are seeking up to 400 desktop scanners.
The Houses of the Oireachtas are also seeking up to 30 servers suitable for subsequent integration in to a storage area network (SAN). They are also seeking a further 10 database servers for integration in to a SAN.
According to the tender notice published on the Government’s procurement portal, the Houses of the Oireachtas are opting to buy all the equipment rather than rent or lease the equipment.
The tender notice follows a similar notice put out in May seeking more than 200 broadband connections for the homes and constituency offices of TDs in order to facilitate remote access.
By John Kennedy
