Robert Dowds (Dublin Mid West, Labour)
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Question 160: To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality the extent of money spent on ministerial transport in his Department for each of the years 2009, 2010 and 2011. [31598/12]

Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy will be aware, the Government introduced a number of changes for the provision of Office Holder transport during 2011. One of the consequences of that decision was that the transport arrangements in place for Ministers of State became applicable to Government Ministers, subject to very limited exceptions on security grounds. In addition, it was decided that former Presidents and Taoisigh would only be supplied with official transport for important State occasions. The revised transport arrangements came into operation for Government Ministers on 1st May 2011 and for former Office Holders on 16th June 2011.

The Garda Commissioner is the Accounting Officer for the Garda Vote. In that context, I am informed by the Garda authorities that records in relation to the cost of providing Office Holder transport have not been maintained in a manner which would allow for the identification of costs associated with individual Office Holders. However, the Garda authorities have indicated that total expenditure on the provision of Office Holder transport in 2009, 2010 and 2011 was as outlined in the following table:

With regard to the table, some of the costs arising in 2011 included costs associated with the service prior to and after the new transport arrangements had been fully introduced.

In so far as transport for Ministers of State is concerned, the position is that a total expenditure of €42,922 was incurred by my Department in 2009 in respect of transport for former Minister of State Mr Conor Lenihan. No other transport costs for Ministers of State were paid by my Department within the period referred to by the Deputy.