Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
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Question 237: To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if his Department has a contract with a taxi firm; if so, the amount of money spend by officials in 2007 and 2008; the changes he will bring about; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4026/09]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)
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My Department has a credit account with one taxi firm. The expenditure on this account for the years in question is as follows:

There is a new draft taxi usage policy document under preparation in my Department with a view to reducing taxi costs going forward.

Also, in 2008, my Department implemented a scheme whereby a number of bicycles have been provided, with the appropriate safety equipment, for official use. I am very pleased to report that the uptake on the use of these bicycles has been very good. This scheme also reduces the dependency on use of taxis, particularly for city centre travel.

Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
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Question 238: To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if external storage is utilised by his Department; if so, if he will state what is being stored; the length of time it has it been stored; the cost of such storage; the details of the contract; his plans in this regard; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4040/09]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)
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The Office of Public Works (OPW), through a contract with a service provider, provides dedicated file storage facilities for the public sector. The cost of this storage is met by OPW. My Department uses one of these facilities in Dublin for storage of files relating to the work of all functions of the Department that are Dublin based.

My Department uses a file storage facility in Collonney, County Sligo for storage of files relating to the former Accounts function of the Department. OPW also manage this facility through a service provider and meets the associated file storage costs.

With many thousands of files in storage at these dedicated centres the administrative burden and cost of identifying the length of time each individual item has been in storage cannot be justified.

My Department also rents a file storage facility located at Belturbet, County Cavan that serves the Department's office in Cavan town. This facility costs €800 per month. This storage facility has been in use since May 2008.

Drilling equipment used by the Geological Survey of Ireland is stored at OPW's Central Engineering Workshops (CEW) at Inchicore, Dublin. It has been stored there in excess of ten years. As the facility is State owned there is no cost incurred or contract required.