Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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Question 508: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the amount for each of the past two years which was paid by his Department or An Garda Síochána in respect of the use of mobile phones by members of An Garda Síochána; the number of mobile phones issued by the State or the Gardaí to individual members; the amount paid by the State to members of An Garda Síochána in respect of the use of their personal phones for work purposes; the amounts paid to each of the main mobile phone users; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20570/06]

Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)
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The amount paid to mobile phone providers for the past 2 years in respect of the use of official Garda mobile phones from the Garda Vote is as follows:

In addition, a sum of €1,119,924 was offset against licence income received by the OPW in respect of an agreement with O2 for the use of Garda Masts for mobile telephony. When the 2005 figure is received from the OPW I will provide this information separately to the Deputy. Each Member of Superintendent rank and above has a personal issue mobile phone. Others are allocated throughout the organisation and are a pooled resource available to each Chief Superintendent for temporary allocation as determined by operational need. There are 1,008 mobile phones from O2 and 67 from Vodaphone for these purposes.

In addition, 600 Vodafone phones have been purchased at a fixed rental cost for use on the Garda Information Services Castlebar (GISC) pilot project. These phones are restricted to fixed numbers and no call charges accrue. Following a further tender process, a contract for a further 2000 mobile phones has recently been awarded to O2, and these will be deployed over the coming months as implementation of the GISC project progresses. These phones are also on a fixed rental basis, restricted to specific Garda numbers and accrue no call charges.

The amount paid to members of An Garda Síochána in respect of using their residential phones for official business (Telephone Allowance) for each of the past two years is as follows:

50% of the annual basic residential line rental costs, 360 local calls per annum and relevant VAT charges are paid to such members.