Jack Wall (Kildare South, Labour)
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Question 105: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance the cost to date of the review in respect of the Review Body on Higher Remuneration in the Public Sector Higher Civil Service including fees and expenses paid to members of the review group; the consultancy costs incurred by the group; the persons to whom these consultancy costs were paid; the details of other costs incurred by the group; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2348/08]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Question 196: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance the cost involved in the work of the Review Body on Higher Remuneration in the Public Sector and the fees and so on paid to each member of the body for each of the past three years to date in 2007 and in respect of report No. 42; the number of oral hearings that were held; the consultancy services that were sought; the cost of same; if submissions were made in respect of targeted performance of persons under review; and the relevant body or person for assessing performance in respect of salary awards in respect of Members of Government. [36055/07]

Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 105 and 196 together.

Details of the consultancy costs incurred in respect of Review Body Report No. 42 are as follows:

For the period 1 January up to 31 March 2005 the fees applying were €12,697.38 per annum for the Chairman and €6,348.69 per annum for ordinary members of the Body. With effect from 1 April 2005 the fees applying were revised to €25,000.00 per annum for the Chairman and €15,000.00 per annum for ordinary members of the Body. The two members of the Body who were also members of the Labour Court did not receive a fee. No other fees or expenses have been paid out to the Chairman or members of the Body over the course of the past three years.

I do not have information on the precise number of oral hearings held by the Body but groups with which oral hearings were held are shown in Appendix 4 of the Review Body's report.

In relation to submissions, the Review Body is an independent body and retains all submissions presented to them. The Department of Finance does not have access to these records or their content. Again the list of submissions received by the Review Body are shown in Appendix 4.

The role of the Review Body is to make recommendations on appropriate rates of pay for those posts which come within its terms of reference. It has no role in relation to the assessment of the performance of individuals.

Schemes for performance-related pay awards apply to various of the groups covered by the Review Body but not to members of the Government.