IT Issues Hit Finance Officials Hours Before Budget Release

The Department of Finance experienced major IT issues just before last year's budget, with staff locked out of documents, frozen systems, and overheating laptops. The issues related to the eDocs system and caused significant pressure to meet deadlines. The issues were reportedly caused by a Microsoft update that was not anticipated to have a negative effect on the Department's high workload.

The Department of Finance encountered significant IT issues in the hours leading up to last year's budget, causing severe disruptions and delaying crucial documentation. According to its top civil servant, the issues posed a "significant risk" to timely delivery, adding to the "severe pressure" to meet deadlines [1].

The primary culprit was the Department's eDocs system, which faced a "significant volume of issues" that "considerably impacted staff." Officials reported being locked out of documents, experiencing frozen systems, and overheating laptops. Some staff faced "white screens" and "vanishing" documents when multiple users attempted to access them simultaneously [1].

The IT problems were not isolated to the day of the budget. Issues had been presenting for weeks, and despite extra resources and support, no resolutions were found. The Department's secretary general, John Hogan, wrote to the Government's Chief Information Officer, Barry Lowry, stating that the issues were "wholly unacceptable" and that any risk to the delivery of core tasks was intolerable [1].

The most critical incident involved a document with the economic and fiscal outlook, which had to be saved and re-uploaded five times due to staff being locked out. Other officials faced difficulties editing spreadsheet files and creating the Minister's budget speech simultaneously. Slides designed for online sharing during the speech were also unavailable due to folder crashes [1].

In response, Lowry apologized, attributing the issue to a Microsoft update that had been extensively tested but was not anticipated to have such a negative effect on the Department's high workload. He confirmed that while a fix had been identified, it could not be deployed in the busy pre-budget period [1].

Despite the challenges, the Department of Finance managed to deliver the budget on time. However, the incident highlights the potential risks posed by IT issues to critical government operations. It underscores the need for robust IT systems and contingency plans to mitigate such disruptions.

References:
[1] https://www.irishtimes.com/politics/2025/08/26/major-it-issues-hit-finance-officials-in-hours-before-last-years-budget/