I propose to take Questions Nos. 583, 585, 586 and 587 together.
The information requested by the Deputy is outlined below.
No telephones were provided in my home or the homes of the Ministers of State in my Department.
The Houses of the Oireachtas Service offers a managed IT support service for the constituency-based offices of Ministers and Ministers of State whereby ICT equipment is supplied to Ministers and the assets so supplied are retained by the Oireachtas.
In addition to this, two of my constituency staff were supplied with laptops by my Department to a total value of €1850.15. These devices are retained on my Department’s asset register.
A Constituency function operates as an adjunct to Minister of State White’s Office, as it has done for a number of his predecessors. As the office is in Hawkins House, my Department equips it. Since March 2011, two PCs were provided to the office, as part of the normal departmental upgrade of its infrastructure, at a total cost of €852.40. These assets are retained on my Department’s asset register.
Additional software licences, to a total value of €640 approximately, were supplied by my Department to Minister of State Shortall’s Constituency staff, while she was in office.
The information requested by the Deputy regarding the cost of telephones bills in constituency offices is set out in tabular statement.
Name
|
Date (from March, 2011)
|
Amount
|
Minister James Reilly
|
Bills from March, 2011 to December, 2011 paid directly by Constituency Office. This amount was refunded by Department.
|
€1680.46
|
|
January 2012
|
€167.42
|
|
February, 2012
|
€163.12
|
|
March, 2012
|
€221.16
|
|
April, 2012
|
€108.77
|
|
May, 2012
|
€208.51
|
|
June, 2012
|
€47.15
|
|
July, 2012
|
€108.33
|
|
August, 2012
|
€52.26
|
|
September, 2012
|
€51.51
|
|
October, 2012
|
€108.33
|
|
November, 2012
|
€47.17
|
|
December, 2012
|
€52.34
|
|
January, 2013
|
€51.51
|
|
February, 2013
|
€51.47
|
|
March, 2013
|
€51.94
|
TOTAL
|
|
€3243.45
|
Name
|
Date (from March 2011)
|
Amount
|
Minister Kathleen Lynch
|
July, 2011 (inclusive of service connection charge of €545.61)
|
€1154.86
|
|
August, 2011
|
€439.99
|
|
September, 2011
|
€267.80
|
|
October, 2011
|
€371.82
|
|
November, 2011
|
€436.27
|
|
December, 2011
|
€425.73
|
|
January, 2012
|
€317.54
|
|
February, 2012
|
€435.62
|
|
March, 2012
|
€405.53
|
|
April, 2012
|
€349.09
|
|
May, 2012
|
€367.67
|
|
June, 2012
|
€343.55
|
|
July, 2012
|
€337.88
|
|
August, 2012
|
€308.07
|
|
September, 2012
|
€283.46
|
|
October, 2012
|
€322.26
|
|
November, 2012
|
€332.05
|
|
December, 2012
|
€345.99
|
|
January, 2013
|
€267.06
|
|
February, 2013
|
€347.49
|
|
March, 2013
|
€276.43
|
TOTAL
|
|
€8181.16
|
|
October, 2012
|
€75.39
|
Minister Alex White
|
Date (from March 2011)
|
Amount
|
|
November, 2012
|
€73.02
|
|
December, 2012
|
€73.35
|
|
January, 2013
|
€67.01
|
|
February, 2013
|
€73.35
|
|
March, 2013
|
€82.41
|
TOTAL
|
|
€371.18
|
The total number of mobile phones in use by myself, Ministers of State and politically appointed staff is nine. The total cost of mobile phone bills since March, 2011 is €19,381.44.