Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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22. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the amount expended on access to online and hardcopy media publications in each of the years 2017 to 2019 and to date in 2020; the breakdown of online and hard copy subscriptions including the publications that his Department subscribes to; if consideration has been given to using a banded set of IP addresses for online subscriptions rather than individual accounts; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4008/20]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Immediate access to up-to-date and reliable information is critically important to the work of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, including via the network of 90 Missions overseas. The value of high quality information has been amply demonstrated by the Brexit and COVID-19 crises.

At headquarters, a dedicated Library Service is responsible for the central purchase of electronic and hard copy media and other publications. The Department’s requirements are regularly reviewed and best possible group rates based on IP addresses are routinely negotiated with suppliers.

The information requested by the Deputy is summarised in the following table. I will provide the Deputy with more detailed information about the publications purchased, within 10 days.

Ireland's 90 diplomatic and consular Missions also have modest budgets that they use to purchase a wide range of local and international online and hard copy publications. Annual expenditure by Missions for the period in question is set out in the following table.