Vol. 417 No. 5
109 Mr. Stagg asked the Minister for Finance if he will outline separately for each Government Department the following information, (a) the number of visual display units currently installed in each Government Department, (b) the number of personal computers, excluding dedicated word processors, installed in each Government Department and (c) the number of dedicated word processors in each Government Department.
The information sought by the Deputy cannot be compiled under the categories requested. The term "visual display unit" can include personal computers and networked workstations. For the purposes of part (a) of the current question a narrower definition covering terminals with no processing power of their own, dumb terminals, linked directly to a mainframe or minicomputer has been used. In the Civil Service these are normally used for transaction processing, eg taxation cases or social welfare claims. Some of these do run office automation software such as word-processing as well as transaction processing software.
The figures at (b) include personal computers both stand alone and operating on networks. All of these machines are capable of running word-processing as well as other office automation software such as electronic mail, spreadsheets and databases.
Dedicated word-processors, i.e. machines which are capable of running only wordprocesing software, are no longer purchased or used in the Civil Service.
|
Department |
(a) |
(b) |
|
Dumb Terminals |
Personal Computers |
|
|
Agriculture |
397 |
280 |
|
Attorney General |
0 |
9 |
|
Central Statistics Office |
330 |
20 |
|
Civil Service Commission |
28 |
63 |
|
Comptroller & Auditor General |
0 |
40 |
|
Defence |
5 |
120 |
|
Director of Public Prosecution |
0 |
12 |
|
Education |
10 |
463 |
|
Energy |
3 |
120 |
|
Environment |
116 |
244 |
|
Finance |
10 |
514 |
|
Foreign Affairs |
20 |
409 |
|
Gaeltacht |
0 |
24 |
|
Health |
20 |
143 |
|
Industry & Commerce |
30 |
320 |
|
Justice |
107 |
310 |
|
Labour |
36 |
118 |
|
Marine |
0 |
127 |
|
National Gallery |
0 |
13 |
|
Office of Public Works |
12 |
210 |
|
Oireachtas |
16 |
20 |
|
Ombudsman |
0 |
30 |
|
Ordanance Survey |
140 |
46 |
|
President's Establishment |
0 |
5 |
|
Revenue Commissioners |
2,200 |
691 |
|
Social Welfare |
2,152 |
100 |
|
State Laboratory |
0 |
42 |
|
Taoiseach |
25 |
80 |
|
Tourism, Transport & Communications |
61 |
197 |
|
Valuation Office |
32 |
36 |
