Results 31,321-31,340 of 32,983 for speaker:Paschal Donohoe
- Public Accounts Committee: Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, Houses of the Oireachtas Commission - Review of Allowances (23 Oct 2012)
Paschal Donohoe: Last week we spoke about trying to bring together the income and allowance sides of the story. The Department of Defence did this very clearly for us. Mr. Watt has also done this in the column on allowances percentage of pay grade. Would it be possible to complement this with an understanding on whether any of these allowances form a significant part of compensation for people at higher grades?
- Public Accounts Committee: Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, Houses of the Oireachtas Commission - Review of Allowances (23 Oct 2012)
Paschal Donohoe: The column with regard to allowances percentage of pay grade reflects the experience of most of the workers in receipt of these allowances.
- Public Accounts Committee: Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, Houses of the Oireachtas Commission - Review of Allowances (23 Oct 2012)
Paschal Donohoe: I have a number of quick questions for Mr. Coughlan and Mr. Watt.
- Public Accounts Committee: Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, Houses of the Oireachtas Commission - Review of Allowances (23 Oct 2012)
Paschal Donohoe: By my standards they will be very quick, even rapid. Mr. Coughlan spoke to Deputy Fleming about refurbishment costs for offices and the €8,000 allowance. To clarify, this is not a case of people claiming €8,000 for refurbishing an office. They must produce receipts for the work.
- Public Accounts Committee: Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, Houses of the Oireachtas Commission - Review of Allowances (23 Oct 2012)
Paschal Donohoe: People who claim this allowance might not claim the full €8,000 or even much of it. They will claim a portion of it.
- Public Accounts Committee: Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, Houses of the Oireachtas Commission - Review of Allowances (23 Oct 2012)
Paschal Donohoe: My next question is for Mr. Watt. What corroboration do the political parties in receipt of the leader's allowance provide with regard to how the money is used?
- Public Accounts Committee: Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, Houses of the Oireachtas Commission - Review of Allowances (23 Oct 2012)
Paschal Donohoe: The parties provide audited accounts to show how the money has been spent.
- Public Accounts Committee: Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, Houses of the Oireachtas Commission - Review of Allowances (23 Oct 2012)
Paschal Donohoe: That is fine. I am interested to know the form of corroboration. It is an awful lot of money and it is good to put it on the record so people know how it is spent. Will Mr. Coughlan put into context for us the cost savings that have been delivered in the Houses of the Oireachtas in recent years? What has been the trend in the running costs of everything here in recent years?
- Public Accounts Committee: Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, Houses of the Oireachtas Commission - Review of Allowances (23 Oct 2012)
Paschal Donohoe: Will Mr. Coughlan repeat that?
- Public Accounts Committee: Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, Houses of the Oireachtas Commission - Review of Allowances (23 Oct 2012)
Paschal Donohoe: By "new scheme" Mr. Coughlan means the combination of the public representation allowance and the travel and accommodation allowance.
- Public Accounts Committee: Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, Houses of the Oireachtas Commission - Review of Allowances (23 Oct 2012)
Paschal Donohoe: The combination of these yields an approximate saving of €1 million per year over the old system. What is the cost of the two of them together?
- Public Accounts Committee: Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, Houses of the Oireachtas Commission - Review of Allowances (23 Oct 2012)
Paschal Donohoe: Vouching and fobbing are modest expectations with regard to how taxpayer's money is spent. It is very important this is maintained and increased.
- Public Accounts Committee: Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, Houses of the Oireachtas Commission - Review of Allowances (23 Oct 2012)
Paschal Donohoe: How would that work? Is it the case that the additional payment would cease to be an allowance and would then become part of the salary?
- Public Accounts Committee: Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, Houses of the Oireachtas Commission - Review of Allowances (23 Oct 2012)
Paschal Donohoe: That is the overall direction being taken.
- Public Accounts Committee: Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, Houses of the Oireachtas Commission - Review of Allowances (23 Oct 2012)
Paschal Donohoe: What about the franking machine allowance, which is €500,000 per annum? I had a look at the business case for this allowance, which states that given the huge increase in the use of e-mail in the past ten years, with a related drop in ordinary mail and so on, it is probable that the volume of franking required has diminished significantly and will continue to do so. These are the...
- Public Accounts Committee: Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, Houses of the Oireachtas Commission - Review of Allowances (23 Oct 2012)
Paschal Donohoe: According to the table, the first payment of this allowance was on 3 January 1994, which is quite a while ago.
- Public Accounts Committee: Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, Houses of the Oireachtas Commission - Review of Allowances (23 Oct 2012)
Paschal Donohoe: I am trying to put a structure on all of this. There is so much detail involved one might never establish anything. There appears to be a few different parcels into which all of these allowances are being categorised, one of which is additional duties, which at a time in the history of the State were huge duties in respect of which people were paid extra. These have been overtaken by the...
- Public Accounts Committee: Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, Houses of the Oireachtas Commission - Review of Allowances (23 Oct 2012)
Paschal Donohoe: On the office accommodation allowance, the first payment of this allowance was pre-independence.
- Public Accounts Committee: Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, Houses of the Oireachtas Commission - Review of Allowances (23 Oct 2012)
Paschal Donohoe: Further on in the document there is what is termed a common additional hours allowance table, the total cost of which in 2011 was €7.446 million. Is this an additional payment structure?
- Public Accounts Committee: Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, Houses of the Oireachtas Commission - Review of Allowances (23 Oct 2012)
Paschal Donohoe: These are Civil Service payments rather that payments to, say, gardaí, firemen and so on.