Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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Question 27: To ask the Minister for Social Protection if she will make a statement detailing the consultancy reports or research commissioned by her Department in 2011; and the cost of same. [21325/11]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The Department engages consultants (individuals or organisations) to provide intellectual or knowledge based services (e.g. expert analysis and advice) including the delivery of reports, studies, assessments, recommendations and proposals that contribute to decision making or policy making. As part of a drawdown contract on business processing, consultants have been commissioned to build on the work completed by the Department in the development of the National Employment and Entitlements Service. The cost of this project is €135,000.

The Social Inclusion Division of my Department has commissioned research on poverty trends through a three year contract at a per annum cost of €80,000. The researchers produce an annual report on poverty trends and technical reports and contributes to research seminars and briefings. The 2011 annual report is on childhood deprivation and poverty and the technical paper is on poverty measurement.

Funding is also provided for the Social Inclusion Research Innovation Awards (SIRIA), which is managed on behalf of the division by the Irish Research Council for Humanities and Social Sciences (IRCHSS) as part of its Research Development Initiative 2010 . The total grant aid is €110,000, paid in two instalments in 2010 and 2011.

In addition to work commissioned by the Social Inclusion Division, the Department also commissioned, as part of a multi-annual programme, a range of research projects in pensions modelling and child income support. The allocation for this work in 2011 is €150,000.

The Department has contracted with a specialist Information Systems (IS) Internal Audit provider for a three year programme, commencing July 2011, to carry out internal audits on the Departments ICT systems. This is to provide independent assurance that internal controls and security are satisfactory in the IS area. The cost will be between and €29,040 and €54,450 per annum over the three years.

The Department has engaged assistance in developing and implementing information security standards and promoting best practice throughout the Department. The programme of work includes the provision of advice and support on a range of issues, including Identity and Access Management, Data Classification and Retention, Risk Assessment of critical IS systems and infrastructure and an Information Security and Data Protection awareness programme. €60,000 is allocated to this work in 2011.

This year €3,557 has also been spent to provide a practitioner's view of access requirements to General Registry Office (GRO) historical records for genealogical research.