Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Question 323: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the reason a reply was not given by him when a simple question (details supplied) was asked on 25 January 2006; if he will now provide a breakdown of what was paid to each county and each county council in 2005 in relation to performance awards for the local government sector; and if it is taxpayers' money that is used to pay those people. [3396/06]

Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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The committee for performance awards in the local government sector was established to deal with the assessment of performance awards for senior managers in local authorities. The committee's mandate is to make an independent determination and scrutiny of awards in accordance with a scheme formulated by my Department with the approval of the Department of Finance and which is consistent with principles recommended by report No. 38 of the review body on remuneration in the public sector.

The committee's reports for 2003 and 2004, which are available in the Oireachtas Library, include details of the distribution of awards as a percentage of pay, the range of monetary value of awards and the number of recipients. I understand that the committee has not yet approved awards for 2005 and that it is considering including also in its report for 2005 details of total awards by local authority. In accordance with advice provided by the Information Commissioner regarding the corresponding Civil Service scheme, information naming officials and individual amounts paid to them is deemed a personal record and consequently is not made publicly available. Performance awards in the local government sector are financed from general local authority funds.