Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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Question 381: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the amount spent by his Department in 2004, 2005, 2006 and to date in 2007 for air travel, business class flights and first class flights in tabular readable form. [30632/07]

Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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The expenditure incurred by my Department on air fares for the period 2004 to 2007 is set out in the following table. Details of individual flight classes are not recorded separately. As a general principle, it is the policy of my Department that staff travel on economy class tickets. Business class tickets are generally only purchased in respect of long haul flights. First class travel may only be availed of by the Minister on long haul flights and his accompanying spouse or partner and Private Secretary or Advisor.

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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Question 382: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the amount spent by his Department on couriered documents, registered post and standard post to date in 2007 in tabular readable form. [30647/07]

Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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Meeting the needs of an ever increasing and diverse customer base involves a considerable level of interaction between our staff and the public, whether by post, in person, by phone etc and with their representatives.

Our income support work impacts on the lives of almost every person in the State. The bulk of our activity is in the delivery of direct services to the public (over 1 million people each week claim a social welfare payment) and, when their dependents are included, a total of more than 1.5 million people benefit from weekly payments.

The Department administers some 50 separate welfare schemes and services. In any given year we process nearly 1.9 million application forms, receive some 6.5 million phone calls and issue 68 million payments. The Department publishes 87 information booklets/leaflets and a wide range of forms.

In that context the amount spent by my Department on couriered documents, registered post and standard post to end October 2007 (latest date for which information is available) is set out in the following tabular statement.

It has not been possible to separately identify registered post costs. Consequently a total amount has been included for both registered and standard post.