Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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Question 484: To ask the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism the number, rank and pay of all civil servants in his Department and ministerial staff, personally appointed by him or otherwise, who are engaged in media monitoring; the nature of the work done; the persons who the information is circulated to or the people who have access to this information; the cost of this service; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33502/07]

Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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Question 486: To ask the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism the number of press officers and press advisers in his Department; the rank and pay of each; the description of work done; the persons to whom the information is circulated or made accessible; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33532/07]

Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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Question 488: To ask the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism the number of press advisers employed by his Department; the cost of such advice for each year since 1997 to date in 2007; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33562/07]

Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 484, 486 and 488 together.

There is currently one Press Adviser at Principal Officer Higher level appointed by me in June 2007 and a Higher Executive Officer who acts as Press Officer in my Department. They are both paid at the civil service rates appropriate for those levels. There are also two executive officers, one on a worksharing basis, employed in my Department's Press Office. Prior to June 2007, my Department engaged PR consultants on a contract basis which terminated in October 2007.

The work of the Press Office includes, inter alia, the promotion of my Department's policies and achievements, handling queries from the media on matters within my remit and acting, as required, as spokesperson for me and my Department. It also involves preparing and editing speeches and press releases and dealing with requests for interviews, articles, messages etc for a range of publications.

All staff in my Department's Press Office receive daily press cuttings, taken from national daily and Sunday newspapers, in electronic format, provided by Media World Limited. The press cuttings, which are monitored by the Press Officer, are circulated to me, to my Special Advisor, to my Private Secretary and to members of the Management Advisory Committee. The daily press cuttings may also be accessed on-line, on the Media World website, by staff who have been provided with a username and password by my Department's Press Office.

My Department's Press Office also intermittently receives press cuttings from regional publications, also provided in electronic format by Media World Ltd. These may be forwarded, at the discretion of the Press Officer, to senior or middle management if an article is judged to be of interest to their area of responsibility. The Press Officer also receives broadcast monitoring email notifications from Media World Ltd of television and radio broadcasts relevant to arts, sport or tourism.

My Department is invoiced monthly by Media World Ltd for these services. The cost for daily press cuttings is €1,452.00 (inc. VAT) per month. The cost for regional press cuttings is €1.60 + 21% VAT per cutting. The cost for broadcast monitoring is €78.65 (inc VAT) per month. In addition my Department requires a licence from Newspaper Licensing Ireland Limited in order to circulate or copy this information. The cost for this licence, covering Irish and British newspapers, is €575.03 from April 2007 to April 2008.

The total cost of the engagement of PR consultants for the Department from June 2002 to October 2007 was €354,137 as set out in the Tabular Statement.