Shane Ross (Dublin South, Independent)
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115. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality the total number of chairpersons and non-executive directors of State or partially owned State companies, of State bodies, of semi-State bodies and of State agencies under the aegis of her Department on the State's payroll; the total cost to the State from the payout to these non-executive directors including fees, travel and other expenditure; her plans to reduce the number of these chairpersons or directors. [12610/15]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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I am interpreting the Deputy’s question as relating to chairpersons and non-executive directors of boards with a governance or oversight function of a state body. Moreover, I understand that a non-executive director is a person who sits on the Board of an organisation but does not work for that organisation. For example, the staff members that work for the Legal Aid Board and who sit on that Board would not be included as non-executive directors. Staff from my Department who sit on Boards, for example, the Property Registration Authority, Property Services Regulatory Authority or the Legal Aid Board would be included as non-executive directors.

The information sought by the Deputy is set out as follows:

Total number of chairpersons and non-executive directors engaged in the types of organisation referred to by the Deputy, under the aegis of my Department: 104. It should be noted that this total takes into account those Board members who have waived their entitlement to fees and those civil/public servants who are not entitled to board fees.

Total cost to the State, including fees, travel and other expenses, in 2014, in respect of the chairperson and non-executive directors referred to by the Deputy was €519,484.

I also wish to inform the Deputy that as part of the Government's Agency Rationalisation Programme, the Property Registration Authority is to be merged with the Valuation Office and Ordnance Survey Ireland. The merged organisation will be named Tailte Éireann. Earlier this year, I published the General Scheme of the Tailte Éireann Bill to provide for this merger. The General Scheme proposes that Tailte Éireann will have a Board consisting of a total of seven members.

This proposal would represent a reduction in the number of such members from the current eleven serving on the Property Registration Authority and ten members serving on the Board of Ordnance Survey Ireland (i.e. a total of 21) to seven. It might be noted that the Valuation Office does not have a Board.