Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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I want to tease out the question of what constitutes an allowance. I have provided some figures which I either brought with me or worked out during the session. The figure for the HSE is 2.6%, while that for the Garda is approximately 16% and that for the Prison Service is 35%. These are the figures for allowances as a percentage of the total wage bill. From what we have to date, the HSE is substantially below the others. The other figures relate to the number of allowances by agency. We held a discussion about the Garda but the full list from the Garda shows 104 allowances. The equivalent list from the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government shows 63 allowances, while the list from the Department of Defence shows approximately 64 allowances. Give or take an allowance in either direction, those figures are roughly correct. However, the HSE has only 41 allowances.