New department plaques to cost €15k

AROUND €15,000 will be spent changing name plaques from Department of Arts, Sports and Tourism to Department of Tourism, Culture and Sport outside its offices in Killarney and Dublin.

The sum is believed to be the tip of the iceberg in the overall cost in changing the website, stationery and signage following the re-arrangement of the words in the department’s name announced in the recent Cabinet reshuffle which saw name changes at five Government departments.

The total cost of the realignment has not yet been estimated.

The departments are currently discussing the issue with the Department of Finance, which will bring proposals to Cabinet shortly on the overall costs.

The Labour Party estimates a total cost of €10 million – or €2m per department. This is based on the €2m it cost to change logos on headed paper and nameplates outside offices when the Department of Social Welfare became the Department of Social, Community and Family Affairs in 1997.

The Department of Tourism, Culture and Arts confirmed it has set aside around €15,000 for two “large surface mounted external signs comprising patinated individual lettering” and one “surface mounted internal sign in the entrance foyer” of the Killarney office and one “surface mounted external plaque-type sign” at its Kildare Street Office in Dublin.

A spokesperson said: “No order has yet been placed in respect of signage. In accordance with Public Procurement regulations, the department will be seeking quotations and signage options from various signage providers, prior to choosing the most appropriate option and provider.

“Following the announcement of the name change, the department sought an estimated cost for the replacement of the existing signage in order to determine the scale of the costs associated with this work. This costing was the basis of the estimated expenditure of €15,000.”

Labour’s Ciarán Lynch said although this sum could be considered a small amount it is “just the tip of the iceberg”. “Changes will also have to be made to stationery, websites, even a different logo design that will have to be commissioned and paid for.”

Under the changes made in the reshuffle, the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment became the Department of Enterprise and Innovation, with certain responsibilities for employment being moved to the Department of Social Protection which replaced the Department of Social and Family Affairs.

Mr Lynch said costs associated with the changes to the Department of Arts could be avoided, because its functions and responsibilities have not changed.

“It was just a change in the sequence of words that will cost €15,000. Had common sense prevailed, they could have saved the taxpayer a not unsubstantial sum of money.”