Cork City Council has saved just over €17,000 per annum by going paperless for meetings.
At last night’s full council meeting it was revealed that since the introduction and implementation of Cork City Council’s electronic council documentation system, Cork City Council has made savings of approximately €1,500 per month, equating to just over €17,000 per annum.
In a reply to a question posed by Independent councillor Thomas Moloney who asked about how much the council had saved, Cork City Council’s Director of Corporate Affairs and International Relations, Paul Moynihan, stated that these savings are made up of savings in “corporate printing averaging out at €2,000 per quarter and transport (taxis) savings of approximately €760 per month”.
Before switching to paperless meetings in September 2019, councillors received their agenda, council reports, information and responses to individual councillor questions in a large bundle which was delivered to the homes of councillors every Thursday before their Monday meeting.
“This cost analysis is based on a detailed Managed Print Service Assessment of previous council documentation trends and an analysis by Corporate Affairs of previous costs associated with the transport of council documentation to Elected Members regarding full council meetings, budget meeting, SPC meetings, LAC meetings and other committees and meetings of council,” Mr Moynihan stated.
“The move to the electronic council documentation system SharePoint, as was originally identified in the Annual Service Delivery Plan for 2019 as a key improvement action in supporting elected members of the City Council, has not only delivered cost savings as outlined above but has also been a more sustainable method of delivering ‘real-time’ communications to our elected members, particularly given the enhanced demand for paperless meetings during the Covid-19 pandemic,” Mr Moynihan continued.
Mr Moynihan added that paperless council meetings have also had supplementary benefits, such as reduced waste and reduced man-hours.
Original article appeared firstly on https://www.echolive.ie/corknews/arid-40190865.html
