Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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15. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of hours spent by staff in his Department since he came to office in the preparation of ministerial newsletters; the cost of staff time involved; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [48240/13]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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On my appointment as Minister I was struck by the range, variety and complexity of work carried out in this Department and the importance of communicating this important work to a wider public. Corporate Affairs Division of my Department is responsible for the communication of information to the public, and this is done through a variety of methods including speeches by Ministers, press releases and through presenting relevant information on the Department’s website. On taking my Office I asked that Division to use the available resources to increase the public awareness of the vast array of activities in my Department and the idea of a cost effective method of doing this would be an online newsletter.

Since my appointment I have issued nine such newsletters, while it is not possible to quantify the precise cost of this exercise because the officials involved do this work in conjunction with other related work, every effort is made to keep this cost to a minimum and I can confirm that no additional resources were employed either internally nor externally for this purpose.