Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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Question 433: To ask the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism the amount of banking charges paid by his Department over the past three years; the breakdown of these charges; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22876/09]

Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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In June 2005, my Department outsourced its accounts payable function to the Financial Shared Services Centre of the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform as part of the development of the Management Information Framework. As part of this transfer of functions, my Department proceeded to close all commercial and other bank accounts and therefore my Department has incurred no banking charges over the last three years in respect of commercial or other accounts.

My Department has eight active credit cards for officers who may be called upon to incur expenditure in the course of official Departmental duties. These credit cards carry an annual credit card fee of €200 each. The Financial Shared Services Centre incurs commission charges on foreign payments made on behalf of my Department which are in turn charged to my Vote. The total of these commission charges from 2006 to 2009 (year to date) was €2,210.45.

Andrew Doyle (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Question 434: To ask the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism the amount spent by his Department each year for the past three years on bottled water; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22890/09]

Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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The Department took occupancy of a new building in Killarney in December 2008 that utilises a filtered water system for staff, which eliminates the requirement for bottled water. Prior to that, the amount spent by the Department on bottled water across all our buildings is as follows:

Bottled water costs at the National Archives covers the provision of water for public consumption given the nature of its activities. In addition, it should be noted that the Department's temporary accommodation at Fossa, Killarney was in a converted business premises which required bottled water to be available as no alternative drinking water source was available.