Tom Barry (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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Why is expenditure on office equipment and external IT at this level? I presume it is to do with the new CAP schemes. It is quite a high figure each year. While there are reductions, what is the balancing figure of pensions on total salaries, wages and allowances?

While it might look good that the Department is more efficient as a result of the large number of staff retirements, would it be better to be pay people a bit more and have their services rather than have them sitting at home?

I refer to the expenditure on office premises expenses which seems to have remained stable even though quite a few local offices have been closed down. One would expect that the closure of offices would be reflected in this figure.