Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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150. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills 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. [45369/21]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Staff of my department have been working in line with Government COVID-19 guidance, which had provided for home working to continue where possible with the exception of roles where the nature of the work did not lend itself to remote working. Following the Taoiseach's announcement on the 1st of September, my department is now in the process of introducing a phased return to the workplace.

In relation to the implementation of the national remote work strategy Making Remote Work in my department, a central policy framework for Blended Working in the Civil Service will be finalised in conjunction with employee representatives over the coming months. This framework will inform the development of organisation level blended working policies tailored to the specific requirements of each department and Office, whilst ensuring a consistency of approach across key policy areas.

Staff of my department have the ability to participate in video and web conferencing meetings on multiple platforms and can join a meeting on a desktop, laptop, mobile phone or landline. Between my department and the Department of Education* , we have approximately 700 Cisco Webex seats to enable staff members to host meetings on the Webex platform. The Webex seats were procured in accordance with the Office of Government Procurement’s guidelines for procuring goods and services.

*The Department of Education ICT unit provides ICT shared services for the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science.

Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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151. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills 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. [45386/21]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The information sought in relation to the aegis bodies under the remit of my Department is not held by my Department. Contact details for the State Bodies under the aegis of my Department are set out in the attached document, should the Deputy wish to contact them directly with this query.

Note 1 – In regard to the Higher Education Authority (HEA) and the Irish Research Council (IRC) as the IRC operates under the auspices of the HEA. Mr Mellett will address Oireachtas queries for both the HEA and IRC. Please use Oireachtas@hea.ie and Oireachtas@research.ie respectively to contact Mr Mellett.