Michael D Higgins (Galway West, Labour)
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Question 19: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the amount his Department spends on postage costs regarding the circulation of notices to school boards of management; his Department's policy on the use of e-mail for this purpose; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44361/08]

Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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The specific information sought by the Deputy in relation to the cost of postage of notices to Boards of Management is not readily available within my Department. The amount spent by my Department on the distribution of publications to schools etc. cannot be separated from the overall cost of postage issued from my Department. My Department's total expenditure on postage this year to end October is €2,031,176.79. This figure includes the cost of posting a variety of materials to schools including publications, circulars, paycheques, posters, leaflets, etc. It should also be noted that my Department agrees on occasion to circulate relevant materials produced by other organisations to schools, the postage costs given above do not exclusively relate to material emanating from the Department. My Department regularly reviews its postage arrangements with a view to achieving maximum value for money. In this regard, last year my Department introduced a system of regular bulk mailings to schools in order to avail of discounted rates and to minimise postal costs.

A wide range of publications and reports are made available electronically on my Department's website: www.education.ie. It is the policy of my Department that all circulars can be accessed on my Department's website and all circulars and notices of general application, whether issued via the postal service or not, are posted on the website for reference and download. The circular or notice in question, where appropriate, requests the management authority to bring its contents to the attention of staff and /or parents in the school.

Teachers are generally made aware of the existence of circulars relating to pay by the inclusion of a text facility in their payslip. In addition, the Online Claims System (OLCS) which has been rolled out to primary and post primary schools has also removed the need for schools to submit certain information to my Department on paper forms, thus saving on printing and postage costs for both schools and my Department. In certain instances schools are also notified when a Circular has been placed on the website by the inclusion of a paragraph on the notes of the OLCS system.

In a further effort to reduce the costs of printing and distribution of publications in 2009, it is now corporate policy within my Department that all publications will be web based and will only be printed and distributed by post in exceptional circumstances.

Email is used by my Department's Post Primary Teachers Unit to disseminate information relating to the posting of circulars on the website and other information to the CEOs of the 33 VECs, the management bodies and the unions in addition to alerting schools through the OLCS.

An email service for the Schools Broadband Access Programme has been commissioned and designed and has been piloted with a number of schools to test the system and obtain feedback on the service. The Department is considering the wider application of this email service generally for schools and specifically as a communications tool for the Department.