Immediate access to up-to-date and reliable information is critically important to the work of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, including via the network of 90 Missions overseas. The value of high quality information has been amply demonstrated by the Brexit and COVID-19 crises.
At headquarters, a dedicated Library Service is responsible for the central purchase of electronic and hard copy media and other publications. The Department’s requirements are regularly reviewed and best possible group rates based on IP addresses are routinely negotiated with suppliers.
The information requested by the Deputy is summarised in the following table. I will provide the Deputy with more detailed information about the publications purchased, within 10 days.
|
Year
|
Electronic
|
Print
|
|
2017
|
376,064.72
|
58,783.71
|
|
2018
|
326,523.47
|
57,221.63
|
|
2019
|
316,152.20
|
49,360.31
|
|
2020 (to mid March)
|
58,205.83
|
7,682.49
|
Ireland's 90 diplomatic and consular Missions also have modest budgets that they use to purchase a wide range of local and international online and hard copy publications. Annual expenditure by Missions for the period in question is set out in the following table.
|
Year
|
Electronic
|
Print
|
|
2017
|
67,803.16
|
145,761.20
|
|
2018
|
79,597.59
|
129,146.49
|
|
2019
|
73,719.36
|
145,133.46
|
|
2020 (to mid March)
|
24,303.51
|
32,069.18
|
