John Lyons (Dublin North West, Labour)
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292. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if she will detail the usage of her Department's new website; if she will detail the schemes and services it offers to jobseekers and employers; if she will compare its services and cost effectiveness to that of the previous website; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [32950/13]

John Lyons (Dublin North West, Labour)
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293. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the amount her Department's new website will cost; the amount the previous website cost between 2007 and 2012; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [32951/13]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 292 and 293 together.

The Department’s website www.welfare.ie has been redesigned to more properly reflect the full range of services the Department now delivers. The new website represents the first phase of a multiple programme of planned activity in the website and online services area of the Department. It incorporates the major expansion of the Department in recent times and it aligns the site with the Department’s priorities, including the activation of jobseekers and information and services for employers. It will also facilitate the delivery of more online services for customers.

The design of the new site includes improved navigation features for all users, as well as a dedicated Intreo area (www.intreo.ie), through which employers and jobseekers can access all existing information and services in relation to supports, training and entitlements. This includes links to existing content and services held on other sites such as JobBridge, FÁS and JobsIreland; providing jobseekers and employers with one central location for their information needs.

The new website includes a number of new online services for jobseekers including an Office Locator which provides users with immediate access to contact details for their local Intreo Centre or Social Welfare Office, as well as a Find a Job service, integrated with the Jobs Ireland website, which allows users search for jobs directly from the Department's website. Other online services for jobseekers include online claiming and “signing” for Jobseeker’s payments and a “Close my claim” service through which jobseekers can notify the Department when they get a job. From July, jobseekers can also use the site to check their eligibility under the new JobsPlus incentive, which replaces the Revenue Job Assist and the Employer Job (PRSI) Incentive schemes.

Employers can access information on the range of recruitment services, financial supports and workplace supports available to them to help generate employment and retain employees. They can also now register online for the JobsPlus incentive, which provides a grant to employers who employ jobseekers who have spent twelve months or more on the Live Register.

Extensive information on all of the other schemes and services provided by my Department is carried on the website, as well as a range of online services, presented in a user-friendly format. These online services allow users to claim online for a number of payments, including Child Benefit and State Pension; request statements of payments they have received; request copies of their social insurance record; submit queries and comments, and also report suspected social welfare fraud.

1,010,780 people visited the new website from February to June 2013. As many people would visit the site more than once and look at more than one page per visit, this translates into over 1.78 million visits and almost 7 million page views. After the home page, the most popular pages on the website are those related to jobseekers and online services. The new online services developed as part of the website redesign project are proving popular with users; almost 104,000 people have used the new Office Locator and over 75,000 have used the Find a Job service.

The new technical infrastructure delivered under this project gives the Department greater flexibility in the way in which it can provide information and services to its online customers and will also facilitate the development and delivery of enhanced online services. In particular, the new infrastructure has delivered the online JobsPlus service for employers and jobseekers, launched earlier this week.

Following an open procurement process, Hewlett Packard (HP) Ireland Ltd were appointed as consultants on the website redesign project. The overall cost of the new website, including VAT, is €569,958. This figure includes the development of the desktop version of the site, a mobile version of the site, the first year’s maintenance fee and 21 days additional support in the event that specific development work is required to implement new online services.

The previous version of the website, in existence from September 2008 to January 2013, cost €485,451; this figure included the development of the desktop site (but not a mobile site), three year’s maintenance fee and 30 days additional support. A strategic review of the Department’s then website was undertaken in 2007 at a cost of €58,000 and recommended that a full redesign of the website be initiated. All the recommendations of this review were implemented in the 2008 website redesign project.

Given the extended range of information and services provided through the new welfare.ie site, and the greater flexibility and opportunities afforded by the site’s new technical infrastructure, I believe the new website will prove more cost-effective than its predecessor and that the Department’s investment in this area was justified.