Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

Information given to Deputy O'Dowd through a series of parliamentary questions indicates a bonus culture exists within elements of State agencies and some Departments. This creates an enormous credibility problem. Outrage was felt across the country at the proposal to pay bonuses to bankers in particular areas. The Minister for Finance, after a degree of consideration despite the advice of the Attorney General that claimed nothing could be done about the bonuses and which the Minister put on the record, did a solo run and rightly stopped their payment. Today's newspapers indicate a bonus culture still exists in State agencies and Departments, however.

In 2008 the Minister for Finance issued a circular stating this bonus system should cease. From the majority of parliamentary replies to Deputy O'Dowd on this matter, it seems to have been applied in all Departments expect the Department of Finance and several State agencies. In 2009, performance related bonuses were paid to the chief executive of the National Treasury Management Agency, amounting to €200,000, to the chief executive of the Personal Injuries Assessment Board, amounting to €31,000 and to the chief executive of Horse Racing Ireland amounting to €40,539.

These payments present a credibility problem. Last week's budget, presented as fair and equitable, asked ordinary public servants, be they teachers, gardaí, nurses, cleaners or carers, to take salary reductions and pay more levies and taxes. Now they find in some areas of the public sector that a bonus culture is alive and well. It is as if a separate club exists.

Will the Taoiseach confirm this bonus culture will be ended across the public sector and the Civil Service? As the Minister for Finance has direct control over the pay of senior civil servants above the level of assistant secretary, how does he propose to end this bonus culture which has caused outrage and separation within public sector ranks? Have the proposals in the Minister's 2008 circular been implemented? What does the Taoiseach propose to do about the information given to Deputy O'Dowd on bonuses in certain areas?

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