Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Question 121: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance 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. [12790/08]

Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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A number of measures have been taken in my Department to reduce the volume of paper used in conducting Departmental business.

In relation to payments in the economy generally, the Deputy will be aware that my Department's policy is to maximise the usage of electronic forms of payment instead of cheques or payable orders and I would draw the Deputy's attention to measures that I introduced in the recent Budget towards that end. Almost all suppliers to my Department and programme beneficiaries from my Department's Vote as well as staff expenses are paid by electronic funds transfer, rather than by paper payable orders as would have been the case in the past.

The Paymaster General's Office has recently replaced paper based methods for the transfer of funds in support of Departmental payments systems with an electronic system. It is also in the process of providing Departments and Offices with an online reporting facility to replace the paper monthly reports which are issued.

In the case of staff remuneration, almost all of my Department's staff are paid electronically and the greater number of them have also opted for electronic payslips instead of a paper version. Arrangements are in hand to have all wage and salary recipients use electronic payslips where this is feasible.

Other initiatives being undertaken to reduce the volume of printed documentation are the publishing of reports on the Department's website and the publishing of office notices and circulars on an electronic bulletin board. An electronic version of the Public Service Management System is due to be introduced. There are also plans to enhance the Departmental intranet to include additional information relevant to staff. In addition all printers procured must have automatic duplex functionality which allows for printing on both sides of the page.