Vol. 479 No. 2
129 Mr. Callely asked the Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht the cost to date of all ministerial photography in his Department since December 1994; if he will give a breakdown of such costs for himself and the Ministers of State at his Department. [12960/97]
I refer the Deputy to my reply to Question No. 61 of 30 April 1997, in which I stated in response to his query regarding the cost of photography to my Department that a number of staff are engaged in photographic duties in the heritage service and in the national cultural institutions under the aegis of my Department. The costs associated with those duties are provided for in the administrative budget of my Department and I did not consider that the time and expense necessary to extract the detailed information required to respond to the Deputy's query could be justified.
With regard to the Deputy's specific query in regard to ministerial photography, the position is that the cost to my Department of engaging private photographers for official purposes was of the order of £3,200 in 1995 and £3,400 in 1996. A large number of such engagements involved the launch of reports and other important departmental initiatives at which the presence of a photographer was necessary for official record purposes.
