Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Question 119: To ask the Taoiseach the number of contracts held by his Department and its agencies with telecommunication providers; if he will provide details of these contracts including the name of the telecommunication provider and associated financial agreements; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37307/10]

Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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My Department has a contract with Vodafone for the provision of mobile services and products procured through the Department of Finance Mobile Framework Agreement.

My Department also has a contract with Eircom for the provision of fixed line voice services through the Government VPN Plan.

My Department is currently in the process of reviewing its telecommunications requirements and as part of this initiative it is planned to carry out a tender under the Department of Finance, Fixed Voice and Voice over IP Framework 2010, when the necessary preparatory stage has been completed. In this context it would not be appropriate for me to provide details of the financial agreements in place between my Department and its current telecommunications providers at the moment for commercially sensitive reasons.

The National Economic and Social Development Office (NESDO), which is the only agency under the aegis of my Department, has contracts with two telecommunication providers. One is with O2 and is for mobile phones. The price plan covered by this contract is the O2 Release Multi plan. The second contract is with Imagine and covers fixed land lines. The price plan covered in this contract is the IBA CommsSaver plan. NESDO continuously keeps these contracts under review to ensure that they offer the best value available from the various providers in the market.

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Question 120: To ask the Taoiseach the number of contracts held by his Department and its agencies with energy providers; if he will to provide details of these contracts including the name of the energy provider and associated financial agreements; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37322/10]

Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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My Department does not have any contracts in place with energy providers as its energy is supplied through the Houses of the Oireachtas system which provides for the needs of the Government buildings complex. Electricity and gas for the complex is provided by ESB Independent Energy Limited and Bord Gáis respectively.

The National Economic and Social Development Office (NESDO), which is the only agency under the aegis of my Department, does not have any contracts with energy providers. Office accommodation for NESDO is rented from the Office of Public Works, which negotiates such contracts for the building where NESDO is located.