John Lyons (Dublin North West, Labour)
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Question 162: To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality if he will provide details of all websites under his remit; the annual cost of maintaining each website; the average number of hits per month on each site for the past year; his views on whether these websites can be rationalised to bring about cost savings without compromising e-Government objectives; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37948/11]

Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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My Department provides support for 25 websites related to the work of the department and some bodies under its remit. Details of visits are not recorded for all sites but figures recorded in the past year indicate that there was an average of 26,726 unique visits per month to my Department's main site (www.justice.ie) and that there was an average of 54,015 unique visits per month to the Irish Naturalisation & Immigration Service (www.inis.gov.ie). Hosting and related charges for these sites in the past 12 months came to €18,783.82. Other costs, such as staff time spent maintaining the site content which forms part of the day to day work of the Department, are not separately accounted for.

Websites are an essential communications tool for any modern organisation in providing essential customer services. As part of the Shared Service model, websites are developed and maintained based on reusable templates. This approach has led to a reduction in the cost and effort of setting up and supporting websites. The management of websites within agencies of my Department currently not availing of the IT Shared Service is an operational matter for the agencies concerned and is not a function for which I have responsibility.