Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael)
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Question 112: To ask the Taoiseach the number of reports awaiting publication in his Department; the name of each such report; the length of time which has elapsed since each report was commissioned; the cost or projected cost of each report; and the date on which each report will be published; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18552/05]

Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)
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The 2004 annual report for my Department is being finalised and will be published shortly. The cost of the report is not yet available but the cost of the 2003 annual report was €26,981.97.

One of the commitments in the Government White Paper on Better Regulation, published in 2004, was to produce guidelines on consultation for the public sector. Work on these guidelines, Reaching out — Guidelines on Consultation for Public Sector Bodies, commenced in December 2004 and is nearing completion. It is expected that the guidelines will be published in July this year. The projected cost of producing the report is €26,000.

A report which has as draft title, Report on Piloting of Regulatory Impact Analysis and Recommendations for Mainstreaming, was not commissioned per se. It is the report of a pilot process arising from the White Paper on Better Regulation. The projected cost, with quotations still in progress, is €17,500. The report is expected to be published in July.

It is intended that a report would be published in the coming weeks on the murder of Mr. Seamus Ludlow arising from the Commission of Inquiry into the Dublin and Monaghan Bombings of 1974 and other incidents. The commission commenced its work in January 2000 and Judge Barron's report on the Ludlow case is the third report made in a series of four. A separate breakdown of costs associated with this particular report is not available, as the costs incurred form part of the overall work of the inquiry team. It is expected that the printing of the report will be arranged by the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Equality, Defence and Women's Rights, as was the case with previous reports from Judge Barron.

A report by the Information Society Commission, Learning in the 21st Century: Towards Personalisation, will be produced later this month. This will capture the proceedings of a policy workshop hosted by the commission in November last. The workshop was designed to engage key stakeholders with identifying strategic priorities in adapting the institutional arrangements supporting education and training to meet the challenges of the knowledge-based society.

The report arises from the work programme of the Information Society Commission itself, and was not commissioned by the Houses of the Oireachtas or by Government order. The costs of publishing the report will be approximately €1,400.