Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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Question 275: To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if he will provide a list of State agencies under his aegis; and the annual cost of each agency to the Exchequer. [36737/12]

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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As the Deputy was advised on 31 January last the Government is committed to a programme of public service reform and improvement. As part of the work in this area, we are looking at classifications and listings of State Agencies in order to produce more coherent and focused directories of services for citizens and the Oireachtas.

Broadly the position is that there are firstly a number of offices of State which typically are staffed by Civil Servants and have their own Vote for the allocation of public monies and which are within a Vote Group. Secondly there are non-commercial state bodies who are usually staffed by Public Servants and funded (or part funded) through a grant-in-aid from their parent Department.

In the case of my own Department there are two non-commercial state bodies or State Agencies. These are the Institute of Public Administration (IPA) and the Special EU Programmes Body (SEUPB). There is no direct cost to the Exchequer in respect of the IPA as it runs as a Limited Company however my Department does pay out a grant-in-aid which for 2012 was set at €2.75 million. The SEUPB is a North/South Body established under the Good Friday Agreement. It is jointly sponsored by my Department and the Northern Ireland Dept of Finance and Personnel. My Department and the NI Dept of Finance and Personnel both contribute to the Body's running costs; the cost to the Irish Exchequer in 2012 is €1.197m.