Jack Wall (Kildare South, Labour)
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Question 81: To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the cost of maintaining the Power of One and the Change websites; his views on the merit of merging the two websites to reduce costs; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43620/08]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)
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The Power of One electronic campaign consists of a suite of three complementary websites — PowerOfOne.ie, PowerOfOneStreet.ie and PowerOfOneAtWork.ie — each targeting a specific segment of society. In 2008, €220,000 has been spent on developing and maintaining the websites.

My colleague, the Minister for Environment, Heritage and Local Government, has informed me that €450,000 has been spent on developing and maintaining the Change.ie website in 2008, which has included extensive scientific and technical design for its core element — the carbon calculator and database.

The websites for both Power of One and Change act as the central informational portal for each campaign. All media activity, including TV, radio, outdoor and press are used to drive traffic to the sites. To date, the Power of One campaign has had over 700,000 page impressions and earlier this year received an eGovernment Award in recognition of excellence illustrated in the marketing of ICT based services. Visitors to the site can:

Use the new energy calculator which demonstrates how much energy and money can be saved by making simple changes.

Take an interactive energy survey which helps to identify key areas where energy can be saved.

Watch all Power of One TV ads and specific energy efficiency videos that provide advice on how best to reduce energy use.

Download or request information packs and posters, of which 60,000 have already been distributed to consumers across the country.

The Change website is an innovative vehicle for raising public awareness of climate change, its causes, impacts and implications for Ireland as well as to drive significant behavioural change to reduce and avoid greenhouse gas emissions in how we live, work and travel. Since the carbon calculator was launched as part of the development of the website on 5 May 2008, almost 90,000 people have calculated their carbon count number. Users are directed to the Power of One site where they can then find ideas, which help to reduce their carbon number.

The remit of the Change campaign covers a broad spectrum of transport, waste, water, energy, biodiversity and planning across the agriculture, transport, construction, tourism, business, industry and the public sector. Officials from my Department and Sustainable Energy Ireland (SEI) are members of an inter-Departmental steering committee which ensures that there is no duplication of activities and that synergies between campaigns are maximised. Significant synergies have been achieved in 2008.

Both campaigns have worked closely to link the concepts of energy efficiency, carbon reduction and monetary savings, and have recently run joint mass media campaigns on TV, radio, press and online to promote energy efficient heating, appliance purchase and usage.

In combining the carbon reduction, energy saving and monetary saving messages, consumers are presented with holistic energy and environmental advice and guidance. A key component of these recent media campaigns has been the use of families that have clearly demonstrated how easy it is to make simple changes that translate into significant financial and carbon emission savings.

My Department has today received the latest campaign survey results and the results will be published next week. I am informed that 82% of people agree that it makes sense to combine the energy saving, monetary saving and carbon saving messages.

Officials from my Department, the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, and SEI are currently analysing the potential to further align and merge other elements of the campaigns.