Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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1206. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the last time her Department's website was revamped or remodelled; the cost of same; if she or her Department officials have been consulted regarding creating one stand alone online government portal website; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [46008/17]

Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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1207. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the investment in her Department’s website since 2011 including total associated costs incurred; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [46025/17]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 1206 and 1207

The Department’s website www.welfare.ie acts as a core information link between the Department and its customers and stakeholders. With over 7.9 million visits during the period from October 2016 to October 2017, it is used extensively and acts as the central source of information on the schemes and programmes provided by the Department.

An open procurement process, which was undertaken in 2012, saw Hewlett Packard (HP) Ireland Ltd appointed as consultants on a 2013 website redesign project. The 2013 website redesign project delivered a site which remains in existence and included the development of a new desktop version of the site, a mobile responsive version of the site, and support and maintenance of the web site up to 2016 at a total cost of €463,380 (excluding VAT).

In order to provide maintenance support for the website for the period 2016 onwards an open procurement process was undertaken and Hewlett Packard Enterprise Ireland were appointed to provide external support for the maintenance and technical support of the Department’s internal corporate portal and the external website. To date, the total spend on this contract is €33,458 (excluding VAT) which is paid on a drawdown basis.

Given the extensive range of information provided through the welfare.ie website and public reliance on same for clear information, it is important that the website keeps pace with changes in user interface and design in order to provide a modern, responsive and accessible website that more fully meets a wide range of customer and stakeholder information needs and expectations. Accordingly, an in-depth review of the website is currently underway to best determine the information needs of www.welfare.ie customers and provide a roadmap for future website development.

As part of the Government's eGovernment strategy 2017- 2020 the Office of the Chief Information Officer has been working on the development of a Digital Service Gateway - a single digital point where citizens can easily access information about the Government services that are available to them. This work, which began at the beginning of this year is ongoing and will involve the rationalisation of existing Government websites and online services over time. This project will be managed and developed by existing resources within the civil service.