345. Deputy Lucinda Creighton asked the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government the name, costs, date of commission, date or expected date of publication and name of the external consultant of all external reports commissioned by his Department since March 2011. [3766/16]

The information requested is set out in the following table.

(1) The contract was in conjunction with the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland. Total cost of the study is €169,302 (inclusive of VAT). My Department's contribution was €21,190 (inclusive of VAT) with the balance met by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (i.e. €148,112 inclusive of VAT).

(2) My Department previously provided funding to Cork County Council to support the production of an annual Dust Impact Assessment Report at the former Irish Steel site at Haulbowline Island. Following a Government Decision in June 2011, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine assumed the lead role in relation to the remedial works necessary to be undertaken on the site. Accordingly, funding provided to Cork County Council for the annual Dust Impact Assessment Report 2011 and subsequent years is a matter for the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine.

(3) The Initial Assessment report, monitoring programme and programme of measures each arise from a broader process connected with Ireland’s obligation to implement the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD). The work primarily consists of a determination of the status of Ireland’s marine waters, the measures necessary to achieve, or maintain, the required Good Environmental Status by 2020 and a programme to monitor this. The preparation of a draft Initial Assessment (under Art. 8 of the MSFD) including proposals for Good Environmental Status (Art. 9) and for draft Environmental Targets (Art.10) is underpinned by a suite of monitoring measures to measure the maritime environment against these targets (Art. 11). Where human activities are preventing these targets from being met, a Programme of Measures is in the process of being drawn up to mitigate the effect of these activities, or halt them as appropriate (Art.13). A draft Programme of Measures document is currently available on the Department's Website for public consultation.

(4) Survey jointly commissioned and funded by Department of the Environment in Northern Ireland and my Department.

(5) This report was co-funded by my Department and the Private Residential Tenancies Board. The cost to my Department of €42,706 represents 50% of the total cost.

(6) This report has been co-funded by my Department, Teagasc and the Western Development Commission. The cost to my Department of €20,702 represents 40% of the overall expenditure.

(7) This report has been commissioned by my Department under the auspices of the North South Ministerial Council and in conjunction with the Department of the Environment for Northern Ireland. The cost is being evenly split and the final charge to my Department is estimated at €40,000.

(8) The cost of this project , which is estimated at €66,950, will be met by the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources.

(9) The Report will cost €90,440 in total (including 23% VAT) and is being co-funded on an equal share basis by the Departments of Transport, Energy and Agriculture.