City councillors get €28,000 worth of laptops

Iwannahurl

All 18 city councillors have been offered their own laptop/tablet and printer.

http://connachttribune.ie/city-councillors-get-e28000-worth-of-laptops-257/

Apparently it's so the Council can move towards ‘paperless’ meetings, which allegedly could save money in the long run.

An FOI request submitted by the Connacht Tribune revealed that each laptop/tablet cost €1,412. The total paid for the 18 machines was €25,416. Each of the 18 printers cost €182.

The total amount spent came to €28,692, which includes VAT at 23%.

"It is understood one of the 18 city councillors refused to accept the machines," the report says.

I can guess which Councillor: the only one without an email address. At least he's honest though. Why have an email address if you can't be bothered to use it?

_Whimsical_

Iwannahurl wrote: »

All 18 city councillors have been offered their own laptop/tablet and printer.

http://connachttribune.ie/city-councillors-get-e28000-worth-of-laptops-257/

Apparently it's so the Council can move towards ‘paperless’ meetings, which allegedly could save money in the long run.

An FOI request submitted by the Connacht Tribune revealed that each laptop/tablet cost €1,412. The total paid for the 18 machines was €25,416. Each of the 18 printers cost €182.

The total amount spent came to €28,692, which includes VAT at 23%.

"It is understood one of the 18 city councillors refused to accept the machines," the report says.

I can guess which Councillor: the only one without an email address. At least he's honest though. Why have an email address if you can't be bothered to use it?

What sort of laptops and tablets when being sold in bulk would cost 1412 per person? I'd be interested to know where they were bought from, someones pocket is being lined here.
Titan Computers and Passax apparently, they'd have done better down in Argos.

TerrorFirmer

They're a laptop/tablet hybrid, so something in that price range would have to be i5/high capacity SSD tablet, something like a full spec Venue 11 or similar - i.e totally unnecessary and excessive considering their purpose would be reading documents for the most part.

For whatever reason, state contracts never seem to be tailored for usage. They just get fairly high-end machines across the board, even if the use never exceeds the odd document.

I would love to know who advised on these.

joeKel73

Do these laptops belong to the seat or the councillor to keep after the next election (and another round of purchases)?...

snubbleste

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

.....
I would love to know who advised on these.

Would ye now? Submit your own carefully worded FoI request. It's free.

Mrs OBumble

I'm pretty sure that they include printers as well: I'd expect very few city-councillor types of be able to adequately read a complex document on-screen only.

I've been working in with technology for 25 years, and it's only in the past 5 or so that I've felt comfortable enough to absorb complex documents from the screen only. Even now, for things as dense as council planning documents, I'm inclined to print 'em.

TerrorFirmer

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

I'm pretty sure that they include printers as well: I'd expect very few city-councillor types of be able to adequately read a complex document on-screen only.

I've been working in with technology for 25 years, and it's only in the past 5 or so that I've felt comfortable enough to absorb complex documents from the screen only. Even now, for things as dense as council planning documents, I'm inclined to print 'em.

That means the tablets still came in at €1230. That is still ridiculous.

boardzz

The excuse is a move to paperless yet they all got printers with the laptops.

muppetkiller

To be fair a lot of companies when you buy a laptop off them you also buy the servicing of that laptop. So there's usually a no questions asked return policy on them.

But knowing the County council they are probably Alienware type laptops with inbuilt nespresso machines and a slave to carry them.

Iwannahurl

boardzz wrote: »

The excuse is a move to paperless yet they all got printers with the laptops.

Good point.

If the plan works the City Council will be buying and using less paper.

If the Councillors read documents on the laptop, then the net effect is less paper used. Or perhaps they will print only what they need? The Council normally prints everything, and perhaps some of it is never read.

On the other hand, if the outcome is that the Councillors start printing more, will we eventually see a rise in expenses claims for reams of paper and other office supplies? One to watch perhaps...

srsly78

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

That means the tablets still came in at €1230. That is still ridiculous.

Aren't they supposed to put this stuff out to tender? So any provider could apply to service the tender.... Maybe passax was the only one that offered. Is supposed to be all transparent.

renegademaster

it's truly amazing that they can't afford less than €100 to stream the council meetings, especially now they have the new city council chamber all wired up with mics and cameras, yet they have this to blow on laptops!!