Charles Flanagan (Laois, Fine Gael)
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In regard to the Chairman's question regarding the UK referendum, contingency plans, co-ordinated under the Department of the Taoiseach, are in place across a range of Departments, including the Departments of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Foreign Affairs and Trade and so on. We will be eagerly awaiting the result tomorrow. I expect the Taoiseach will make a statement some time tomorrow morning outlining Ireland's reaction to the result and the appropriate next steps.

On our missions in EU member states, we do have a full time presence in each of the 27 EU member states. As I said earlier, these are under review. I would be anxious that we would be in a position to open new missions abroad having regard to the changing circumstances. However, such endeavours must be maintained within budget. The allocation of resources is kept under review at all times.

On employment within the EU institutions, Ireland has always been particularly proud of its contribution at all levels across the EU institutions. It is testament to our endeavour and our expertise that over the years many senior positions within the EU institutions have been occupied by Irish personnel. I do not have information for Deputy O'Brien in regard to vacancies. I do not envisage that there are any vacancies but I am happy to communicate with the Deputy on the matter at a later date.

Members will have noted a recent initiative by the EU institutions to advertise for Irish language translators, and that will be of interest to Irish scholars and those wishing to work in the EU institutions. Those applications are under way.

Programme E is a new programme for 2016. It highlights the emphasis we are placing on driving and supporting public service reform and Civil Service renewal by strengthening our corporate governance and reviewing and upgrading key corporate processes and procedures. It includes the resources we dedicate to communicating globally through traditional and social media, providing high-quality advice, briefing and analysis to the Government, the Houses of the Oireachtas and other State actors, and our efforts to proactively publish information and to respond to freedom of information requests. The allocation under the programme for this year is €41 million, compared with €41.6 million in 2015. A total of 98% of the costs associated with this programme include the pay and non-pay administrative expenditure for the main support divisions of the Department, including those supporting our operations in ten locations on the island of Ireland and our 80 missions abroad. These include our information and communications technology unit, finance division, human resources unit, communications unit, policy planning unit and strategy and performance unit. The figure also includes the resources across the mission network dedicated to strengthening our international influence. Work has continued on the roll-out of new websites across our mission network in the period to 16 June 2016. There have been 4.3 million visits to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade website network by almost 2 million unique users, compared to 2.7 million visits by 1.35 million unique users over the same period in 2015. Visits to the website have almost doubled year on year. We are on track to exceed our targets for visitors and unique users this year. The largest items of web and digital expenditure have included technical development costs for the TravelWise app, to which we referred earlier, and other non-recurring mission website-related costs. Press and public outreach expenditure has so far focused on the 1916 centenary events, including inward media visits and the May visit to Ireland by the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall.

Some of the 2016 output targets provide a snapshot of headline governance activities in the Department as well as reflecting some of the key operational supports which enable the Department to perform across the programme. Earlier this year we published our first corporate governance framework for the Department, which sets out the structures and processes in place to help us deliver on our priorities, achieve our objectives and act in the public interest in ways that are consistent with legal regulatory and government policy obligations. The Department received the results of the first Civil Service employee engagement survey in April of this year. Our results were broadly positive in comparison with other Departments, exceeding the Civil Service average scores for 20 of the 24 measures examined. Since the survey results were issued, several workshops have been held with staff to identify practical initiatives to address some of the issues raised in the surveys.

Eight knowledge management projects are advancing through our knowledge management and innovation task force, including new projects in areas such as contacts management and facilitating online payments. To date, 69 of the 80 missions have a social media presence - that is, 85% - and our aim is to achieve our target of 100% by the end of 2016. The Department’s policy planning unit is on target for its output and has completed four significant policy projects to date this year - on Russia, migration, the United Nations and US foreign policy.

In conclusion, the financial position at the end of May remains broadly on target. Customer service is at the heart of our work. The Department is updating the customer services charter and our customer service action plan.