Dublin Castle, the site of this week's historic EcoFin meeting of EU finance ministers
EcoFin meeting of EU finance ministers due to take place later this week at Dublin Castle will be a totally paperless – or cloud-based – affair, with ministers being equipped with hardware and software from Dell and Microsoft.
EU ministers and Central Bank governors will be equipped with Dell Latitude 10 tablet computers, running Microsoft Windows 8 and Office 365 software, for the EcoFin meeting.
The tablets will be fully encrypted for the highest levels of security, and pre-loaded with relevant documents.
Office 365 and SkyDrive will be used for the distribution of further conference notes and documents that will be made available to attendees over the course of the meeting.
Ostensibly this will eliminate the need for the production of large information packs for the meetings, which take place on 12 and 13 April.
“We have worked closely with the Department of Finance and Microsoft to ensure that the Dell tablets meet all the requirements of the delegates, including in areas such as security and mobility,” Dell Ireland general manager Liam Halpin explained.
“The EcoFin meeting is one of the most high profile of the entire EU Presidency programme and we are delighted that all those attending will have the opportunity to benefit from the latest technology,” added Microsoft Ireland managing director Cathriona Hallahan.
