Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Question 222: To ask the Minister for Transport if his Department has a strategy to reduce the level of printed correspondence, communications, reports and other documents; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12796/08]

Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)
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My Department has a general policy to use modern technology and maximise electronic communications for efficient and effective service. E-mail and electronic storage of documents are used extensively. Staff have been reminded of the importance of minimising paper waste and paper is recycled as far as possible. The central aim of the Department's ICT Strategy is to facilitate the delivery of services and the formulation of policy in the most efficient and effective way possible. A significant element of this is to provide stakeholders with an option to communicate electronically with the Department. The website is regularly updated with policy and service developments. A significant volume of my Department's public consultation is now carried out through this medium. Staff use an intranet system to share information internally. It communicates departmental policies, procedures, announcements, reminders and Departmental developments internally, reducing the volume of printed materials. The Irish Coast Guard uses an extranet to communicate with its 55 volunteer units, comprising some 1,000 volunteers around the coast. An Irish Coast Guard e-newsletter is issued to staff and volunteers. Facilities whereby customers may conduct public services on-line have a critical role in reducing the volume of paper documents and promoting eGovernment initiatives. Motor Tax On-line, the eGovernment service that allows citizens to apply for and renew their motor tax on-line, is administered by my Department. This service is particularly relevant in the context of reducing the level of printed correspondence, facilitating over 4 million motor tax renewals since its inception in 2004. It has saved an equivalent number of paper-based transactions.

The highly successful on-line motor tax facility will be shortly complemented by another eGovernment on-line initiative. This new facility will allow approved motor dealers to notify my Department of changes in ownership of vehicles purchased and sold by them. At present, there are some 600,000 paper-based notifications of changes of vehicle ownership relating to purchases or sales by motor traders processed annually by staff in my Department. The project to deliver this new on-line initiative is already at an advanced stage and the system is scheduled to go live in May 2008. Like the Motor Tax On-line initiative, this facility will also reduce the volume of paper-based applications. As part of Budget 2008, every Department was required to conduct an efficiency review of its operations to reduce current expenditure and to maximise administrative savings. As part of this review, my Department has given an undertaking to consolidate the use of electronic equipment such as printers, scanners, fax and photocopying machines. The purpose of this consolidation is not only to reduce the servicing and running costs of this equipment, but also to use modern technology to reduce and minimise printing where possible. The bulk of my Department's internal communication, including reports, documents etc., is already conducted electronically. However, my Department is currently seeking to further enhance and embed this process by increasing the use of document scanning where this is useful and by the development of a print management strategy to reduce printing costs.