Paul McGrath (Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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Question 446: To ask the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs the number of civil servants and other staff employed in the press office for each of his Ministers of State; and the grade and remuneration of each of these members of staff. [34145/05]

Paul McGrath (Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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Question 447: To ask the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs the number of civil servants and other staff employed on constituency and public relations work for each of his Ministers of State; and the grade and remuneration of each of these members of staff. [35160/05]

Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)
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Question 448: To ask the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs the number of staff broken down by grade employed within the private office and the constituency office; the number of such staff who are permanent civil servants and the number who are political appointees; the annual cost of each such office in terms of salary, overtime and expenses; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35307/05]

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to answer Questions Nos. 446 to 448, inclusive, together.

My Department's press and information office provides a bilingual information service to public, media, internal and professional customers on behalf of the Department, the Minister and the Minister of State. Details of the grade and remuneration of staff in this office are outlined in a Dáil reply to Question No. 428 of 2 November.

The constituency office of the Minister of State at my Department is located in and staffed by the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government.

As a Minister, I am entitled to nine staff members in my private office — a personal secretary and eight civil servants. At present a personal secretary, a higher executive officer, an executive officer and four clerical officers are employed in my private office. There are currently four staff members in my constituency office, a personal assistant and three civil servants: one executive officer, and two clerical officers.

The annual payments for salaries including overtime and expenses for staff in 2004, the last complete year for which figures are available, was as follows:

I have also a special adviser who is paid a Civil Service principal officer salary. The staffing of my private office is in compliance with the Department of Finance guidelines regarding the staffing of ministerial offices.

My private office deals primarily with my role in parliamentary matters, legislative issues, Government business, internal memoranda, official correspondence, correspondence from public — non-constituency work — telephone queries and comments, ministerial travel arrangements and diary appointments, co-ordinating speeches and briefing material for diary events, processing Dáil questions and queries from public representatives.