Written answers

Tuesday, 26 February 2019

Department of Justice and Equality

Departmental Staff Data

Photo of Joan BurtonJoan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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245. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the number of conferences staff of his Department have attended in each of the years 2017, 2018 and to date in 2019, in tabular form; the number of staff that attended each conference; the cost of same in each year; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9173/19]

Photo of Charles FlanaganCharles Flanagan (Laois, Fine Gael)
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Attendance at conferences, seminars and similar type events is a regular, routine, and necessary aspect of work for staff across my Department.

Information on attendance at such events is not collated in a format that would allow for a comprehensive response to the Deputy's question, though if the Deputy has a query in relation to a particular conference I would be glad to make further enquiries.

I would also like to make a couple of general points around conferences:

In general, conferences or seminars organised or hosted by my Department make use of Department facilities where possible. This typically involves the Atrium at my Department's headquarters, which is regularly in use both for internal seminars, and those involving the wider public sector and external stakeholders. Extensive use is made of video-conferencing facilities to allow for participation by staff who are not based at Department headquarters.

As regards attendance at conferences and seminars, I wish to note that costs, where not recoupable from other sources (for example, the EU), can be claimed in accordance with relevant Dept. of Expenditure and Reform circulars only.

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