Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Question 210: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children the bonus or merit payments awarded to senior officials and staff each year since 2000, detailing the management and staff category; the purpose and the amount of the award and the highest award made and to whom. [28385/05]

Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)
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My Department makes payments under a number of schemes as follows. Civil Service posts at the levels of assistant secretary and deputy secretary are covered by a scheme of performance related awards. The operation of the scheme is overseen by the committee for performance awards. The funding for awards is based on 10% of the payroll for the posts covered by the scheme. Within this overall limit, payments of up to 20% can be made to individuals. Details of the procedures, the numbers covered by the scheme, the range of awards and the total amounts paid in Departments are outlined in the annual reports of the committee, available on the website www.finance.gov.ie. The committee does not identify the amount paid to individuals as this is regarded as personal information. The Deputy has sought information dating from 2000. Prior to the introduction of the revised scheme in 2002, there was a scheme for assistant secretaries which was based on 4% of the pay bill for the group of assistant secretaries. Payments made under the above schemes are as follows. In 2001 a total of €21,420.48 was awarded to seven individuals and in 2002 a total of €11,172.00 was awarded to four individuals. The awards paid in 2001 are in respect of two years to 31 April 2001. The awards paid in 2002 are in respect of the eight month period to 31 December 2001.

On payments in relation to the EU Presidency, the following payments were made in 2004 and 2005 in respect of consistent and exceptional attendance by principal officers and assistant principal officers, non-overtime grades, in respect of the special extra attendance required in the context of the EU Presidency. A total of €64,383 was paid to 22 officers. Details are as follows.

The purpose of the INPUT scheme is to facilitate and encourage the submission of suggestions by eligible civil servants aimed at improving Civil Service operations. All grades up to and including principal officer and their equivalents are eligible to submit suggestions. My Department made the following payments under the INPUT staff suggestion scheme.

On the merit award scheme, the Minister for Finance sanctioned expenditure from subhead A.1 for ex gratia payments or other awards to individual staff members or groups of staff in recognition of exceptional performance of duty provided that such expenditure can be met from within the overall allocations and does not exceed 0.2% of the subhead A.1 allocation. It enables Departments and offices to grant awards to staff and is considered to make a valuable contribution as part of the overall reward and motivation system in the Civil Service. Under this scheme awards in my Department are made under the headings of exceptional performance; departmental activities which promote team building and social cohesion; hardship; and awards recognising long service and retirement. Details of the individual awards made are as follows.