Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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46. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the steps taken by his Department to support the implementation of the national remote work strategy Making Remote Work; the approximate number or percentage of staff within his Department who have access to cloud services for remote videoconferencing and the capacity to work remotely; his plans to increase this percentage; the framework under which procurement for this is managed; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45373/21]

Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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47. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the steps taken by agencies under the remit of his Department to support the implementation of the national remote work strategy Making Remote Work; the approximate number or percentage of staff within these agencies who have access to cloud services for remote videoconferencing and the capacity to work remotely; if there are plans to increase this percentage; the framework under which procurement for this is managed; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45390/21]

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 46 and 47 together.

I wish to advise the Deputy thata central policy framework for Blended Working in the Civil Service will be finalised in conjunction with employee representatives over the coming months, for implementation in Q1 2022. This framework will inform the development of organisation level blended working policies tailored to the specific requirements of each Government Department/Office, including my own Department, whilst ensuring a consistency of approach across key policy areas.

All staff in my Department and the Office of Government Procurement (OGP), which is also part of the Department, are enabled to work from home. All of these staff have access to our Government hosted video conferencing services and can also access cloud hosted video conferencing services. In addition, in the order of 35% of staff have an additional licence for the purpose of organising cloud hosted video conferences. My Department utilises OGP frameworks, where available, for the procurement of laptops and other computer equipment and services, etc. Licences for the cloud hosted video conference service were procured nationally.

The position is relation to the bodies under the aegis of my Department is set out in the table below.