Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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460. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if he will provide, in tabular form, the total photography costs for his Department since coming to office inclusive of costs incurred from use of the ministerial allowance; the occasions for which photographers were booked; the photographers used; the breakdown of costs associated with each occasion that a photographer was used; if there is a policy regarding the booking of photographers within his Department; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [49142/14]

Charles Flanagan (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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My Department only avails of the services of external photographic agencies where it is warranted, in particular, for major events and State occasions. This is a service which my Department provides so that the media can easily and freely avail of photography where their own staff photographers cannot be fully accommodated. Events such as the visit of the President of Mozambique, the visit of the Thai Royal Family and the Presidential Distinguished Service Awards resulted in positive coverage of Ireland.

In September 2011, my Department led a collaborative advertised tender process for the procurement of a multi-supplier competitive framework of photographic service providers. This is now available for use by all Government Departments. Details of the framework arrangements and the photographers used are posted on the National Procurement Service website: . The purpose of this framework is to ensure Departments’ compliance with EU procurement rules and to ensure value for money by having a competitive process for photographic assignments.

In addition, my Department now makes greater use of in-house resources for photography, including, for example, at the Irish-Africa Economic Forum in October.

The total cost of photography to my Department over the period in question is €17698.14.

The table below indicates the cost associated with particular events.