Departmental Expenditure

Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 13 May 2020

Wednesday, 13 May 2020

Ceisteanna (1133)

Catherine Murphy

Ceist:

1133. Deputy Catherine Murphy asked the Minister for Rural and Community Development the amount expended on access to online and hard copy media publications in each of the years 2017 to 2019 and to date in 2020; the breakdown of online and hard copy subscriptions including the publications that his Department subscribes to; if consideration has been given to using a banded set of IP addresses for online subscriptions rather than individual accounts; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4013/20]

Freagraí scríofa

Minister for Rural and Community Development

My Department was established on 19 July 2017 and all administrative related expenditure for the period July 2017 - December 2017 was handled by the Finance functions in the Department of Housing Planning and Local Government and the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht. As a result, a detailed breakdown of online and hardcopy media publication expenditure during this period, relating only to my Department, is unfortunately not available.

The information requested by the Deputy for the years 2018, 2019 and to date in 2020 is laid out in the table below.

	2018	2019	2020 (to date)
Online subscription (Irish Times)	N/A	€1,306.91	€1,306.91
Hardcopy media publications*	€6,551.80	€10,814.55	€2,681.70

* Includes: Irish Times; Irish Independent; Phoenix; Economist; Irish Examiner; Sun; Star; Mirror; Mail & Herald

My Department regularly reviews our requirements in relation to media publications, along with the various options available in that regard, to ensure that we achieve the greatest possible value for money in respect of spending in that area.