Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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191. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the anticipated cost to the Exchequer per annum of ceasing the practice of outsourcing and reliance on temporary contract work at the Clerical Officer grade. [30294/14]

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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The Government is committed to exploring alternative service delivery models, including external delivery, as part of an overall objective to improve the quality and efficiency of public services, while ensuring they remain affordable and sustainable. Each public body, when deciding whether to use external service delivery, is expected to produce a detailed business case. This will involve evaluating the merits of such a decision, taking into account a number of factors, including overall cost, quality of service, effectiveness and the public interest.

Temporary Clerical Officer (TCO) recruitment for the Civil Service is typically run each year to facilitate the filling of short term vacancies/absences. This enables managers to fill critical posts delivering essential public services on a temporary basis without conflicting with Government policy on reducing overall Civil Service numbers. The type of vacancies filled include cover for family-friendly initiatives, such as the shorter working year scheme and to address seasonal peaks in demand.

Given that any decision to use external service delivery or to recruit TCOs is undertaken on a case by case basis, the details of the costs/benefits incurred or realised will be dependent on the service and public body in question.

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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192. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if there is a procurement policy in place to examine cost savings associated with FLOSS systems. [30318/14]

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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Free/ Libre/Open Source Software ( F/LOSS) is used quite widely and wherever it makes operational and economic sense in Departments and Offices.  In making software choices, a Department is required to operate a procurement policy that facilitates open competition, best value for money and best technological fit to requirements in keeping with public procurement law.  The evaluation of a procurement exercise is conducted on as close to a total cost of ownership (TCO) model as possible and at a minimum includes the following costs: licensing; arising hardware upgrades/ renewals/replacements; IT and user training; support and maintenance; planning, testing and migration; external expertise; and exit costs.

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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193. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the amount of money spent by the State per annum on licences and consultancy on existing Government software systems, for each year since 2011. [30319/14]

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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While my Department is responsible for the overall sanctioning of ICT expenditure in the public service, the responsibility for day to day operations rests with each Department and State Agency. Consequently, decisions relating to licences and consultancy and associated costs are matters for each Department and Agency, subject to the normal sanctioning arrangements.

My Department currently provides IT services to the Department of Finance on a shared service basis. Unfortunately, the expenditure information requested could not be collated in the time available. My Department will respond directly to the Deputy as soon as possible.