Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Question 355: To ask the Minister for Agriculture and Food 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. [28394/05]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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With effect from November 1998, the Minister for Finance sanctioned expenditure of not more than 0.2% of subhead A.1 — Salaries, Wages and Allowances, in respect of ex gratia payments or other awards to individual staff members or groups of staff by way of recognition for exceptional performance of duty. Awards under this provision can be made in the case of all grades below assistant secretary level. The following table gives a breakdown of the moneys paid under this scheme in the years 2000 to 2004.

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 Department of Finance website. The committee does not identify the amount paid to individuals as this is regarded as personal information.

Prior to the introduction of the revised scheme in 2002, there was a scheme for assistant secretaries based on 4% of the pay bill for the group of assistant secretaries. In my Department a total of £27,000 was paid under this scheme in 2000 and £28,550 in 2001.