Results 1,101-1,120 of 1,776 for speaker:Derek Nolan

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs and Trade
Chapter 13 - Official Development Assistance (6 Mar 2014)

Derek Nolan: I welcome Mr. Cooney and his officials. I echo the comments of colleagues about the quality of the service offered by the Department and its good work. I was on holidays in Australia during the Christmas break visiting my brother and was tracked down by Noel White who wanted to avail of any opportunity to meet a Member of Parliament to tell him or her what he was doing. That was proactive....

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs and Trade
Chapter 13 - Official Development Assistance (6 Mar 2014)

Derek Nolan: Are all of the 585 staff who are abroad posted from Ireland?

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs and Trade
Chapter 13 - Official Development Assistance (6 Mar 2014)

Derek Nolan: They are Dublin-based but posted abroad.

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs and Trade
Chapter 13 - Official Development Assistance (6 Mar 2014)

Derek Nolan: We have a general figure. Will Mr. Cooney break down the allocation for salaries, wages and allowances?

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs and Trade
Chapter 13 - Official Development Assistance (6 Mar 2014)

Derek Nolan: While researching this yesterday I came across a parliamentary question which Deputy Creed put to every Department in October 2012. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade's answer went through the allowances payable by the Department, starting with allowances that are common to more than one Department and to which every civil servant would be entitled. Then it listed some that are...

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs and Trade
Chapter 13 - Official Development Assistance (6 Mar 2014)

Derek Nolan: So they are all in the €77 million.

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs and Trade
Chapter 13 - Official Development Assistance (6 Mar 2014)

Derek Nolan: That is what I was looking for. I wanted to be sure of that. I thank Mr. Cooney. The figures from the answer to the parliamentary question add the cost of living allowance to the local post allowance, child foreign allowance, other foreign service allowance, rent, furniture, school fee, assistant, representation, health insurance and medical expenses, detention, disturbance and temporary...

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs and Trade
Chapter 13 - Official Development Assistance (6 Mar 2014)

Derek Nolan: I do not intend this to be confrontational. I just want to tease out some of the details. May I go through each of the headings and get an understanding of what they are and the basis behind them? I apologise if Mr. Cooney does not have the parliamentary question before him. It says the estimated cost of living allowance was €2.4 million in 2012 and was paid to 335 people who...

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs and Trade
Chapter 13 - Official Development Assistance (6 Mar 2014)

Derek Nolan: Do all the staff serving abroad get a cost of living allowance?

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs and Trade
Chapter 13 - Official Development Assistance (6 Mar 2014)

Derek Nolan: So a significant portion of people serving abroad do not receive a cost of living allowance.

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs and Trade
Chapter 13 - Official Development Assistance (6 Mar 2014)

Derek Nolan: Could Mr. Cooney give us a breakdown of the numbers serving abroad who are and are not receiving this allowance?

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs and Trade
Chapter 13 - Official Development Assistance (6 Mar 2014)

Derek Nolan: The reason I asked about the local post allowance and linked it to the cost of living is because the reply to the parliamentary question in 2012 said approximately 325 received it at any one time. The local post allowance, which Mr. Cooney has told me is separate and has a separate function and meaning, was received by the same number of people, 325. It was not an insignificant amount, at...

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs and Trade
Chapter 13 - Official Development Assistance (6 Mar 2014)

Derek Nolan: I agree. I would like to ask a few more questions on them. If Mr Cooney cannot answer, he may get back to me. That is no problem.

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs and Trade
Chapter 13 - Official Development Assistance (6 Mar 2014)

Derek Nolan: I appreciate Mr. Cooney is from the Department of Health and may not be completely au faitwith every aspect of every pay structure. If someone else in the room has the information I would be happy for them to come forward. Does the cost of living allowance, as calculated for other countries, include in its calculation higher rents in those countries?

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs and Trade
Chapter 13 - Official Development Assistance (6 Mar 2014)

Derek Nolan: Could Mr. Mythen find out if that includes accommodation costs? That is often a significant factor in cost of living differentials. On the basis that there is a rent allowance separate from the cost of living allowance, I am trying to ascertain that there is no double counting.

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs and Trade
Chapter 13 - Official Development Assistance (6 Mar 2014)

Derek Nolan: How is the rent allowance calculated?

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs and Trade
Chapter 13 - Official Development Assistance (6 Mar 2014)

Derek Nolan: Is that allowance paid regardless of whether one maintains a residence in Ireland?

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs and Trade
Chapter 13 - Official Development Assistance (6 Mar 2014)

Derek Nolan: This is not taxable as rent allowance. It is paid as an amount based on rent to compensate people because they incur additional expenditure by living abroad. It is not simply to cover rent but additional expenditure. I do not own a property, for example. If I was sent to Berlin for three years, I would not keep my home but rather let the lease run out and move to Berlin. If I got a rent...

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs and Trade
Chapter 13 - Official Development Assistance (6 Mar 2014)

Derek Nolan: I am sorry the process has gone this way because I genuinely wanted to tease out the issue. In the business case put forward to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform to justify the expenses allowances, it was noted that a deal was done with the Department of Finance in 2005 that the allowances would not be taxable on the basis that they were purely compensatory for additional costs...

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs and Trade
Chapter 13 - Official Development Assistance (6 Mar 2014)

Derek Nolan: It is different. I may be on a salary and when I move abroad, I get paid a cost of living allowance because it is more expensive to live in that place. The local post allowance compensates me. If I do not own a property and I cancel my lease, having had my salary adjusted for cost of living expenses and a local post allowance, would rent be paid on top of that, although there is no extra...