Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)
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Question 43: To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources his plans to merge change.ie and PowerOfOne.ie following the report of the Special Group on Public Service Numbers and Expenditure Programmes; the cost of running both of these websites; his views on whether they cover the same broad area; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35512/09]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)
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The contract for the Power Of One campaign ended on 31 December 2008 and has not been renewed. Since 1 January 2009, Sustainable Energy Ireland (SEI) has assumed responsibility for promotion of energy efficient behaviour in the residential sector, using the Power of One brand which has been very effectively established over the last three years. SEI has a statutory remit for this role under the Sustainable Energy Act 2002.

As part of these new arrangements, the stand-alone Power of One website was terminated and relevant campaign materials were migrated to the existing SEI website content management and hosting infrastructure, where they were combined with SEI's existing consumer advice materials. This will result in savings of approximately €144,000 per annum, based on the average annual costs of building, developing, maintaining and hosting the Power of One website under the previous outsourced arrangements over the 3 years 2006 to 2008. SEI has incurred once-off costs for this migration of €36,000 and an additional €10,000 on development costs for new components of the website.

I understand that the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, who has responsibility for the change.ie campaign, is in the process of terminating the change.ie website. This involves migrating the content of the change.ie website to the websites of ENFO and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). This will also result in savings in respect of hosting and maintenance. Given the broader remit of the change.ie campaign in relation to climate change matters, including transport, waste, water, biodiversity and planning, the merger of the change.ie website with those of ENFO and the EPA is considered more appropriate than a merger with SEI's website.