Liz McManus (Wicklow, Labour)
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Question 133: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the number of staff allocated to the broadband for schools initiative; the duties of same under this scheme; if they have other roles within his Department; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37151/08]

Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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There are currently 1 AP, 1 HEO and 0.5 EO within the ICT Policy Unit of my Department assigned to work on the Schools Broadband Access Programme. The staff report to a Principal Officer who is also responsible for my Department's ICT in Schools Programme.

As the Deputy may be aware, this Programme is being undertaken in partnership with industry in the context of a Government — IBEC/TIF (Telecommunications and Internet Federation) Agreement to provide local broadband connectivity to schools. The Programme has three elements — local connectivity to schools, a national broadband network and a broadband support service desk. Schools connectivity is being routed to the Internet through a national broadband network, which is supported by HEAnet and provides centrally managed services for schools such as security, anti-spam/ anti-virus and content filtering. The broadband support service desk has been established to interface between the network, the local broadband service Access Providers and schools. It is managed by the National Centre for Technology in Education (NCTE).

My officials are responsible for the implementation and development of the Programme. The staff involved liaise with the NCTE and HEAnet in relation to the Programme, any issues arising therein and the provision of services to schools under the Programme. Quarterly contract reviews are held with the various service providers and the staff deal with all the financial arrangements for the Programme, including processing the invoices from the various Service Providers, monitoring the Suspense Account established for the Programme and liaising with Tif members and the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources in relation thereto. My officials deal with the procurement arrangements under the Programme, including the appointment of an external evaluator therefor. They liaise with officials in the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources in relation to the second-level schools proposal set out in the Consultation Paper on Next Generation Broadband. Finally, the staff assigned to work in this area are also overseeing the procurement process for the next phase of the Schools Broadband Access Programme.