Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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277. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the annual saving to his Department if spending on education and training was reduced by 2.5%, 5% and 10%; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26916/15]

Alex White (Dublin South, Labour)
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My Department seeks to ensure that spending on education and training represents value for money and expenditure in this area is incurred in accordance with EU Regulations and Department of Finance guidelines.

The annual cost of Learning and Development in my Department can vary depending on demand and the requirement for courses. The information requested by the Deputy is set out in the following table based on the 2015 Learning and Development budget for the Department.

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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278. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the annual saving to his Department if spending on professional fees, including but not limited to legal, IT-related, accountancy and other advisory and consultancy, was reduced by 10%; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26945/15]

Alex White (Dublin South, Labour)
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My Department administers a very diverse, complex and technical brief. It has a total complement of around 250 full time equivalent staff of whom a limited number are technical personnel. This requires my Department to procure specialist external professional advice notably in legal, financial and technical areas to assist in discharging its functions. In procuring these specialised services, my Department always seeks to ensure value for money and that these professional services contribute to project delivery and informed, robust and evidence based policy making.

Based on 2015 expenditure to the end of May, it is estimated that applying a 10% reduction in professional fees would reduce the amount to be paid in 2015 by approximately €0.7m.

My Department adheres to the relevant EU Regulations and Department of Finance Guidelines on the procurement of goods and services and will continue to keep spending on all consultancy/professional services to a minimum consistent with ensuring the necessary expertise is available to discharge the Department’s wide and complex brief.

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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279. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the annual saving to the Exchequer if the Minister's special advisers' salary was capped at the first point of the principal officer grade, that is €75,647; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26959/15]

Alex White (Dublin South, Labour)
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Special Adviser appointments are undertaken in accordance with the Instructions on Ministerial Appointments for the 31st Dáil (July 2014) and the Guidelines on Staffing of Ministerial Offices (March 2011) issued by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. In accordance with Section 11(1)(a) of the Public Service Management Act 1997, I appointed two Special Advisers in 2014. The annual saving if their combined salaries were capped at the first point of the Principal Officer scale would be €12,223. This figure has been calculated using the Principal Officer (Personal Pension Contribution) scale.

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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280. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the annual saving to his Department and the bodies under its aegis if all the fees for all State agency, non-commercial State sponsored bodies and commercial semi-State board members were reduced by 25%; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26974/15]

Alex White (Dublin South, Labour)
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The information requested by the Deputy is set out in the following table.

The One Person One Salary policy introduced by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform provides that serving public sector employees are not eligible to receive remuneration in relation to their membership of boards of State Bodies. In addition, non-public sector board members may choose to voluntarily waive their fees as a matter of personal choice. Both of these initiatives have been brought to the attention of the bodies under the aegis of the Department. Consequently, the remuneration details in the table below refer to fees that may be payable and are not indicative of fees actually being received by board members. In the case of Commercial State Bodies, any fees payable are not funded by the Exchequer.

In the case of public bodies established by Statute, the maximum, and sometimes minimum, number of persons that may be appointed to the Board is generally set out in the relevant legislation. I have set out in the table the maximum number of persons that could be appointed to these bodies together with the fee level that may be paid in each case.

The Irish Exchequer pays half of the cost of Loughs Agency board fees

** Staff in my Department are on the Board and no fee is applicable to them