Billy Timmins (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Question 1422: To ask the Minister for Defence the bonuses that were paid to his staff for the year ending 31 December 2005; the amount of money that was paid; the way in which this was calculated; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1929/06]

Willie O'Dea (Limerick East, Fianna Fail)
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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 of 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. Prior to the introduction of the revised scheme in 2002, the previous scheme for assistant secretaries was based on 4% of the payroll for the posts of assistant secretaries. 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 which are available on the Department of Finance website. The committee does not identify the amount paid to individuals as this is regarded as personal information. The matter of the amounts to be awarded to assistant secretaries in my Department in respect of 2005 is currently under consideration.

Performance awards for other grades are made to individual staff members and to groups of staff by way of recognition for exceptional performance of duty. In assessing eligibility for awards, regard is given to the nature and quality of the activities involved and to the circumstances under which they were carried out. Attention is also paid to the grade level of the staff members concerned and to what would be regarded as high quality performance from staff in such grades. No such awards were made to staff in my Department in 2005.