Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
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Question 243: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the number of websites her Department provides; the annual cost of maintaining each site; the number of unique visits each site received for 2009, or for a part of 2009; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [2244/10]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The Department currently maintains four websites. The Department's main website, www.welfare.ie, contains information on the range of schemes and services provided by the Department, as well as policy publications and online services. Support and maintenance costs for the website and associated content management system in 2009 were €47,248. In 2009 there were over 2.75m unique visits to www.welfare.ie. Responsibility for the General Register Office, and the www.groireland.ie website, was transferred from the Department of Health and Children to the Department from January 1st, 2008. The maintenance cost for 2009 was €987.52. Statistics for number of unique visits in 2009 is currently being compiled and will be forwarded to the Deputy when available.

Following the integration of the Combat Poverty Agency and the Office for Social Inclusion in a new Social Inclusion Division within the Department in July 2009, the Department also maintains and updates content on www.socialinclusion.ie and www.combatpoverty.ie. A project has commenced on the custodian and archiving responsibilities arising from the closing down of www.socialinclusion.ie and www.combatpoverty.ie. This will involve the transfer of relevant information to a new area on www.welfare.ie. It is necessary to retain these two sites until this work is complete and it is expected that they will be shut down before the second quarter of 2010.

The costs for 2009 for www.socialinclusion.ie was €232.07. In 2009 the site had 57,309 unique visits. The costs for 2009 for www.combatpoverty.ie was €423.75. In 2009 the site had 93,307 unique visits. I am satisfied that the integration of the Combat Poverty and Social Inclusion websites with the Department's main website will provide customers with a single, highly accessible repository for information on both the Department's range of services and on the social policy research and reports that inform the development of social welfare policy.