asked the Minister for Finance whether he will conduct an internal review, i.e. without the expense of hiring outside consultants, of the cost of supplying the Houses of the Oireachtas and Departments of State with embossed headed stationery and other printed stationery and of the cost of disposing and replacing stationery rendered obsolete by changes in Departments' titles etc.; and generally if he will consider methods of rationalising, standardising and economising in this area of public expenditure.

The cost of supplying embossed headed stationery to Members of the Oireachtas, Ministers and Ministers of State and Secretaries of Government Departments has been estimated by the Stationery Office at approximately £100,000 in an average year.

In an effort to achieve savings in this expenditure my Department this year instructed the Stationery Office to discontinue the supply of embossed headed stationery to Ministers, Ministers of State and Secretaries of Government Departments. I also asked the Chief Whip to approach the Committees on Procedure and Privileges of both Houses with a view to securing their agreement to the use of conventionally printed stationery by Deputies and Senators. The agreement of Senators has been obtained. The Dáil Committee on Procedure and Privileges has agreed that supplies of stationery for Deputies be ordered in future in the proportion of one-third embossed to two-thirds non-embossed.

It is not possible to estimate the cost of disposing of and replacing stationery rendered obsolete by changes in Departments' titles; this would vary according to the quantity in stock at the time of the change.