Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Question 656: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the amount spent by his Department on media monitoring or press cutting services for each of the years 2002 to 2007; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1982/08]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Expenditure by my Department on media monitoring or press cutting services for the years 2002-2007 is as follows:

All costs are inclusive of VAT.

The press cutting service is provide by Media World 7 days a week 364 days a year, and includes the following:

1. Electronic delivery of relevant content* from the 9 National* titles (*see table below).

2. Hardcopy delivery of the same content & Ministerial Photographs on a daily basis.

3. Hardcopy delivery of additional content from 41 specific Regional* titles, as and when published (*see table below).

The service provided is fully automated. The electronic cuttings are replicated to the Department's Intranet at 8:30 am every morning, except for the Sunday weekend cuttings, which are made available the following Monday morning. Hardcopy material is provided to the Press Office before 10:00am each weekday morning.

At current rates the cost averages €154 per day and represents good value for money. The service ensures that staff of my Department do not have to spend any time on the labour-intensive tasks of reading, selecting, copying, formatting or archiving press items. The fact that the service is electronically available makes it much more accessible to all staff and also provides a searchable database of articles dating back to 2004.

There are over 500 visits per day to the press cuttings application on my Department's Intranet. In a recent survey of the intranet, respondents found it to be one of the most useful services provided.