John Lyons (Dublin North West, Labour)
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Question 182: To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine 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. [37937/11]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The details requested by the Deputy in relation to my Department's websites are provided in the following table. My Department's websites are constantly reviewed and rationalised where possible and I have recently introduced a new Minister's Information Centre on my Department's website which provides access to up to date information on ministerial activities.

My Department also continues to develop our online services on an ongoing basis. The success of these initiatives is evidenced by the fact that online applications for the Single Payment System (SPS) increased by 25% in 2011, with over 54,000 online applications. In addition, the number of calves that have been registered online using my Department's Animal Identification Movement (AIM) system has increased by approximately 48% this year with over 400,000 calves registered thus far in 2011.

*Approximate averages based on comparable annual usage.

In relation to agencies under the aegis of my Department, the number of websites and their cost of maintenance is an operational matter for the agencies themselves.