Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick, Fine Gael)
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906. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the agencies or sections from his Department that were decentralised during the period 1997 to 2011; the travel costs and expenses incurred by decentralised personnel travelling to their base Department in that period. [1028/15]

Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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The headquarters of my Department is located in the Custom House, Dublin and decentralised offices are located in Wexford and Ballina. 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.

My Department decentralised part of its business activity to Wexford in 2010, while the Ballina office was established in the late 1980s. On foot of a reconfiguration of Government Departments, the Community Division of the former Department of Community, Equality and Gaeltacht Affairs transferred to my Departmentin 2011. This Division was based in leased buildings in Tubbercurry, Co Sligo, on a temporary basis, as an advance office for the decentralisation of that former Department to Charlestown, Co. Mayo.

Following a review of the Decentralisation Programme conducted by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform in 2012, the Government decided to consolidate my Department’s business operations in the West at its offices in Ballina and this process was completed in late 2014. In addition, Pobal, a body under the aegis of my Department since 2011, has a decentralised office located in Clifden under the 2003 Decentralisation Programme .

The information sought in relation to the travel costs and expenses incurred by decentralised staff travelling to the Department’s headquarters during the period 1997 to 2011 is not readily available. Its compilation would require the examination of each claim and would involve a disproportionate amount of time and work.

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 taxi’s 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 to attend 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 and Wexford offices and through the use of internal desk to desk video conferencing which facilitates document sharing and collaboration.