Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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260. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the amount expended by his Department in each of the past five years to date in 2021 on electricity costs in tabular form; and if he will provide an additional schedule that sets out all energy costs associated with their ICT hardware, that is, servers and so on in tabular form. [60932/21]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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As requested by the deputy, the expenditure incurred by my Department in the last 5 years and to date in 2021 on electricity costs is shown below in tabular form.

Figures provided above exclude any costs incurred directly by my Department's agencies and the figures relate to the expanded remit of the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth following the transfer of functions in 2020.

It should be noted that the Department moved building in 2018 to Miesian Plaza and subsequent to this acquired additional office space in Montague Court as part of a transfer of functions process in 2020. I would also note that the figures above reflect the amounts paid which can be impacted by the timing of the payments with, for example, the figures for 2019 also including all Electricity costs related to Miesian Plaza for the period May to December 2018. These costs are managed by the Department of Health as lead tenant in the building.

In relation to your request for an additional schedule that sets out all energy costs associated with ICT hardware, that is, servers and so on in tabular form, we are not in a position to provide this information. From 2016 until May 2018, this Department's server infrastructure was on the premises in Mespil Road. However the electricity costs related to the server infrastructure etc. cannot be separated from the general electricity costs of the Department. From May 2018 until December 2019 the Department's server infrastructure was hosted by Department of Social Protection in Con Colbert Data Centre and there were no electricity costs paid by my Department in relation to that centre. Since December 2019 our infrastructure has been provided by the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer (OGCIO). Therefore we are not in a position to provide you with an additional schedule that sets out all energy costs associated with our ICT hardware.