Mr. Mark Griffin:

I am here this morning to discuss two issues: the Eircode projects and the 2014 audited accounts of the Department.

The Government approved the award of a contract to Capita Business Support Services in 2013 to develop, roll out and operate the national postcode system, Eircode, under licence for an initial ten-year period. Eircode was launched in July 2015 and a unique seven-digit postcode was provided to each of the 2.2 million residential and business addresses in Ireland. A national information campaign was completed over the summer of 2015 to inform the public about Eircodes.

Public sector bodies are supporting the introduction of Eircode, and since the launch several of them have started using Eircodes in customer engagement and service provision. This process will continue over the coming months. Capita has also signed up more than 20 value-added resellers who provide a broad spectrum of Eircode specialist services to businesses. Since last July there have been almost 3.7 million look-ups on the online Eircode finder, with average daily hits running at 20,000, which shows a high level of customer and commercial awareness of the new system. Some of the committee may have noticed in The Irish Timesthis morning that the National Ambulance Service, NAS, has committed to the use of Eircodes from the middle of next month. I think that is a very important and useful development, not just from the point of Eircode visibility, but also in terms of the critical service that the NAS provides.

With regard to the 2014 appropriation account, total gross spend under the Vote in 2014 was just less than €425 million, some €15 million below the budget allocation of €440 million. The underspend was primarily due to slower-than-expected expenditure on the trading online voucher scheme, energy research programmes and broadcasting expenditure due to lower-than-forecast TV licence receipts.

I will briefly set out some of the key projects supported from the Vote in 2014. There was expenditure of nearly €46 million on communications, multimedia developments and the information society. This expenditure was primarily on the postcodes project, the national broadband scheme and the second level schools broadband programme. Another milestone was met in 2014 when 269 schools in Counties Carlow, Cork, Kerry, Kilkenny, Limerick, Tipperary, Waterford, Wexford and Wicklow were provided with 100 Mbps broadband connectivity, bringing high-speed broadband connectivity to all 800 post-primary schools under the three phases of the national roll-out programme.

Some €86 million was spent in the energy sector in 2014, of which €64 million was by way of the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland on the delivery of energy efficiency upgrades. The schemes funded include residential grants, grants to low-income energy consumers through the warmer homes scheme, and group community projects. During the year, more than 22,000 buildings, including 12,000 low-income homes, benefitted from an energy efficiency upgrade. Government investment in these schemes supports 3,500 jobs on average, highlighting the importance of the State’s involvement in this area.

Expenditure in 2014 in the broadcasting area amounted to just less than €240 million. Of this, €179 million was paid in grant aid to RTE in respect of revenue from the sale of television licences. A total of €25 million of Exchequer funding and €9.2 million of licence fee funding was provided to TG4 to deliver on programme commitments. A total of €14.1 million in licence fee funding was provided to the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland to support the audio and audiovisual media sector in the production of new television and radio programmes of all genres on Irish culture, heritage and experience, as well as programmes in the Irish language.

Just over €28 million was paid to meet the administration and operational costs of Inland Fisheries Ireland, IFI, and the Loughs Agency. This funding enabled IFI to undertake more than 180,000 patrol hours and more than 7,500 environmental inspections. Some €7.4 million was spent on various geoscience projects, including the mapping of Lough Swilly, Mulroy Bay, Broadhaven Bay, Blacksod Bay, Killary Harbour and Tralee Bay, as well as offshore west Clare, Cork and outer Galway Bay under Integrated Mapping for the Sustainable Development of Ireland's Marine Resource, INFOMAR, the national seabed survey project.

The Department’s administrative budget has been significantly reduced from €40 million in 2007 to just over €21 million in 2014. Notwithstanding this, the Department has continued to oversee and implement a wide range of new and existing programmes, undertake regulatory functions and provide policy advice across its wide brief. I have separately provided the committee with the Vote outturn figures for 2015. These indicate gross expenditure of €400 million in 2015, compared to €424 million in the 2014 outturn. A breakdown of the 2015 outturn by subhead has also been provided. I look forward to assisting the Committee with questions it has on the matters under consideration today.