Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality further to Parliamentary Question No. 237 of 4 December 2012, if he will provide a list of all new services across his Department that have been tested for external service delivery since March 2011. [55435/12]

Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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My Department is committed to achieving a focused and integrated approach to external service delivery of non-core processes with the objective of reducing cost and focusing staff on priority areas as agreed by the Government last July. The Department of Justice & Equality is responsible for a broad range of public administration concerns, many of which go to the heart of what is vital in a democratic society, and, as such, are not always suitable for external service delivery. However, within this constraint, the Justice Sector delivers the following services by means of external service delivery:

1. An Garda Síochána speed camera system and associated administrative processes;

2. The collection of fines and payments for the Fixed Charge Processing System and Firearms Certificates for An Garda Síochána;

3. The printing of Fixed Charge Processing System notices and firearms certificates for An Garda Síochána;

4. The collection, towing and storage of seized motor vehicles in certain Garda divisions (to be extended to other divisions over time);

5. The Justice IT Shared Service to the Department and a large number of offices and agencies in the Sector is provided through external service delivery;

6. Maintenance of small vehicles for An Garda Síochána and the Irish Prison Service;

7. The collection of court imposed fines for the Courts Service (it is intended this contract will coincide with the full implementation of the Fines Act 2010 which includes the payment of fines by instalment).

I also recently approved an initiative to put in place a panel with legal expertise who will assist the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service in processing a cohort of repatriation cases thus speeding up the overall process and reducing the time spent by persons in the Direct Provision system. I would expect to see significant dividends from this initiative in the coming months. All new services will be tested for suitability for external service delivery as they arise and in line with Government policy.