Kevin Humphreys (Dublin South East, Labour)
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399. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if he will outline what offices relevant to his Department are located or have been decentralised outside of Dublin; if he will provide the total number of staff in his Department and the number of staff based outside County Dublin as of 2013; the annual cost incurred in 2012 and 2013, respectively, for decentralised staff travelling to meetings in Dublin; the number of times staff travelled to individual meetings in Dublin in each of the relevant years; the costs for which those staff will be reimbursed; and if his Department has procedures or mechanisms in place such as video conferencing to reduce the cost of travelling for each unit based outside Dublin; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [53993/13]

Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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The headquarters of my Department is located in the Custom House, Dublin and decentralised offices are located in Wexford, Ballina and Tubbercurry. My Department also has a number of staff based in other regional locations due to the nature of their work, for example, those who work in the various inspectorates and in the local government audit service. Met Éireann’s headquarters is located in Dublin but this Division of the Department also has offices in various weather stations across the country, including Dublin, Cork, Knock and Shannon airports, Belmullet, Casement Aerodrome, Clones, Malin Head and Valentia Observatory.

The information sought in respect of staff numbers, expressed as full time equivalents, is tabulated as follows.

Staff by Location

The information sought i n relation to the annual costs and the number of times staff travelled between my Department’s offices on official business in 2012 and 2013 is not readily available . Compilation of the information requested in respect of individual travel claims would involve a disproportionate amount of time.

In the context of official travel, it is Departmental policy that public transport should be used wherever possible and that the number of staff absent on official business should be kept to an absolute minimum. Staff are only permitted to hire taxies or use their cars for official purposes where no suitable public transport (bus/train) is available, where public transport is available only at equal or greater expense or where the use of public transport would result in the loss of official time which it is necessary to avoid. Staff travelling between Departmental offices, where public transport options are available, may claim the costs of travel on the basis of public transport rates only.

My Department minimises the amount of travel in respect of internal and external meetings in different locations through the extensive use of the video conferencing facilities available in meeting rooms in its Custom House, Ballina, Tubbercurry and Wexford offices and through the use of internal desk to desk video conferencing which facilitates document sharing and collaboration.