Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)
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Question 240: To ask the Minister for Finance the annual cost of the Credit Review Office for each year since its establishment, a breakdown in terms of annual remuneration including salary and pension entitlements of its chief executive officer and board members; the total salary costs of the office; the number in employment in the office; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28274/12]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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The Credit Review Office was set up under statute (SI 127 of 2010) and reports directly to my Department. The Office has three members of staff, and a panel of reviewers who are called on as necessary, on a case by case basis. It is housed within the Enterprise Ireland (EI) building in East Point, Dublin and EI has been directed by my Department to provide working capital and all support services (IT, payroll etc) to the CRO. In line with the operating guidelines set out in SI 127 of 2010, all costs are paid quarterly in arrears by the participating banks. At no time do the CRO negotiate or account to the banks for their expenditure, which is vouched and approved by the Department of Finance. The Credit Review Office running costs are as follows:

There is no board. The Credit Reviewer is effectively the CEO. There are no pension costs associated with the salary. His fully weighted annual salary is provided in the following table:

Credit Reviewer Salary Costs

The Credit Reviewer's costs equate to a rate of €78 per hour. The year one costs also include the period 9 December 2009 to 31 March 2010, when the Credit Reviewer was designing and implementing the CRO concept. He received payment for this work after 1 April 2010.