Vol. 546 No. 5
72 Dr. Upton asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the number of hits received by her Department's website for the year 2001; the number of staff assigned to maintain the website; the cost of maintaining the website for 2001; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [32465/01]
From 1 January 2001 to 27 November 2001 my Department's website, www.entemp.ie, had a total of 434,355 page requests. Using monthly averages, the total number of page requests for the year is expected to be approximately 480,000. This is an increase of 100% on page requests made in 2000.
One member of staff is employed on a full-time basis in maintaining the website and is assisted by a number of divisional website co-coordinators on a part-time basis from across the Department. My Department's website has recently been redesigned and made compatible with the international web accessibility initiative, WAI, standard. This standard allows users with disabilities to change the text, font, colours etc. of a web page to make it easier to read. Also, for those with poor or no sight, it allows machine readers to "read" a web page out loud. The total cost of the redesign of the website was 36,000 or £28,352.30.
