Peadar Tóibín
Question:251. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Health the total cost incurred in relation to the set-up and maintenance of the Covid tracker app in each of the past five years. [41847/24]
View answerWednesday, 16 October 2024
Questions (251)
Written answers
The cost of the Covid Tracker app was approximately €800,000 with ongoing support and development costs thereafter of approximately €20k per month, hosting costs of approximately €20k per month plus costs associated with monitoring the security of the app and app environment of approximately €13k per quarter.
This compared favourably with international experience with, for example, an estimated cost of €20m for the German Covid tracker app, as reported by the media at the time.
Ireland received €1.15m in funding from the EU to support digital responses to the pandemic, including the tracker app and digital Covid certificates.
Covid tracker apps are significantly complex using advanced engineering and Bluetooth technology to estimate distances from others with mobile phones. As well as the app keeping people informed about the spread of the disease, the number of positive cases and deaths recorded (by area) and the number of vaccinations administered, the app was also subsequently upgraded to act as a digital wallet to store digital Covid certificates on their phone.
No further costs have been incurred since the app was decommissioned in 2023.