Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The point is well noted. We will have that on our work programme. We will note and publish that.

No. 2345B is correspondence from Mr. Peter Finnegan, Secretary General of the Oireachtas Commission, on various queries put to him at the meeting of 11 July. It gives a breakdown of expenditure on ICT in 2018 and information on the costs of disseminating output from the Houses of the Oireachtas to local media, including regional newspapers, local radio and national newspapers.

It also gives a breakdown of the costs associated with the High Court and Supreme Court cases involving Mr. Denis O'Brien and states in regard to that particular case that senior counsel, Sara Moorhead, was paid €136,948, Michael Collins was paid €118,824 and David Fennelly was paid €85,325.

There is a note on a range of issues regarding the six legal cases involving staff of the Houses of the Oireachtas Service and their cases, on which we asked for details. Nobody is identified, but some of the listed cases have gone to the Workplace Relations Commission. The information has been provided to members and will be published later today. There is another note on the work of Rannóg an Aistriúcháin, involving information regarding the backlog in regard to the translation of Acts. There is an extensive report on that backlog and the estimated cost and timescale involved in addressing it. I understand the plan will cost €3.5 million over a five year period.

There is a note on liabilities, which were bills due to be paid at year end. There is nothing significant in that regard.

We asked who was responsible for paying the Army. It is covered by the Department of Defence.

We asked for a breakdown and they told us that there are 2,027 staff on the payroll system, including retired Members and retired staff. The breakdown indicates that Members and political staff number 790, including Deputies, Senators, political personnel who work for Deputies and MEPs, former Members, political staff and MEPs and staff who work in constituency offices. A figure of 584 is provided in regard to Oireachtas staff, including Civil Service bar and catering staff and clerical staff.

There is a further note regarding the ongoing ICT training provided by the service. We made a suggestion that there should the some facility to provide training in the constituency offices, in particular for Members who do not have offices in Dublin. It is easy for Members who are based in Dublin to avail of training. It was suggested that when equipment is being upgraded the personnel delivering the new equipment would be asked to provide, say, a half day training in some of the constituencies. That would be a major help to the more remote offices.

The final note is a response to our request for a note on the energy rating for the building that was refurbished. The note states that an energy certificate is displayed in the Leinster House complex and the rating is D1. The rating system is A to G, with A being the most efficient, such that D1 is a poor pass, at best. A display energy certificate is used in this case, which is slightly different from a BER rating, but is appropriate. It is based on the consumption of energy per square metre of the building. It also includes the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine building and other buildings adjacent to Leinster House. Essentially, the energy rating of the refurbished building is D1.

Some of that information comes in under No. 2409. We will note and publish all of that information.