Kevin Humphreys (Dublin South East, Labour)
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436. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality 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 those years; the costs those staff will be reimbursed for; 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. [53998/13]

Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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My Department has a number of key offices that are located outside Dublin as a consequence of decentralisation since the early 1990s. These are:

In addition to the above the Probation Service provides a nationwide service and in so doing has a further 176 in whole-time equivalent terms located outside Dublin. This means that a total of 595.91 staff are based outside of Dublin.

The Deputy should also note that on 2 December just under 30 staff in whole-time equivalent terms transferred from the Department's Killarney Offices to the Payroll Shared Service Centre in Department of Public Expenditure and Reform.

The total staff in my Department is 1948 and of these almost 600 as set out above are based or located outside of Dublin.

I am advised that the total cost incurred for travel and subsistence in respect of staff in the above locations, with the exception of the Equality Authority in Roscrea and IPS in Longford was €165,821.15 in 2012 and in 2013 was €161,683.93. This related to travel by 137 staff in 2012 and 150 in 2013. The Deputy should note that whilst a proportion of this cost would have related to meetings in Dublin, it would take a disproportionate amount of time and effort in analysing the travel and subsistence records to isolate Dublin as a location, to evaluate the purpose of the travel and calculate the number of meetings involved.

The cost of travel and subsistence in respect of staff in the Irish Prison Service, paid in accordance with standard travel and subsistence rates, was €396,000 in 2012 and €322,00 in 2013. The nature of the business of the Irish Prison Service is that it operates on a nationwide basis with major prison locations throughout the country as well as in Dublin. Again, the Deputy should note that whilst a proportion of this cost would have related to meetings in Dublin, it is not possible to collate the cost of travel and subsistence to isolate Dublin as a location for the reasons stated above.

In relation to video-conferencing I am advised that sophisticated video-conferencing units are already installed or are in the process of being installed in the following and create business efficiencies:

- The Irish Prison Service, Longford

- Financial Shared Services, Killarney

- The Office of the Data Protection Commissioner, Portarlington

- The Private Security Authority and the Citizenship Division of INIS based in Tipperary

In the other locations outside Dublin referenced above, I am advised that my Department continues to keep all of these locations under review and will consider requests for the installation of new or further units or the deployment of other technology to reduce the cost of travel and enhance business collaboration and efficiencies where appropriate business cases exist.

My Department is also actively examining the deployment of other ICT technologies in 2014 and beyond in order to further enhance the ability of all business users to keep in touch and join meetings using a range of collaborative technologies.

I am also aware that my Department has in place strict guidelines and protocols, in common with other civil service organisations, which govern the operation of the travel and subsistence provisions so as to minimise the expenditure incurred, including minimising the number of trips made, using public transport where available and sharing travel arrangements where practicable.