Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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293. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport 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. [26927/15]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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​The allocation for 2015 for training and development in the Department is €160,000. The impact of applying the percentages to this figure is set out in the table below.

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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294. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport 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. [26955/15]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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​Information relating to expenditure on various types of external services is published as a matter of course on my Department's website and can be found at the following link for the period to 31 December 2014. A 10% reduction in the annual spend on professional fees (based on 2014 outturn) would result in a saving to my Department of €6,397k.

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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295. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the annual saving to the Exchequer if the Minister's special adviser's 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. [26969/15]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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​There are two Special Advisors in my Department currently on Point 1 of the Principal Officer pay scale as sanctioned by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform in line with Government policy.  If both of their salaries were to be capped at the first point of the scale the total gross saving, before statutory deductions, that would accrue to the Exchequer would be in the region of €10,000 per annum.

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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296. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport 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. [26983/15]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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​It is not possible to quantify the information sought by the Deputy given the varying tax treatment of individual board members. In the case of commercial agencies, board fees are not a charge on the exchequer so there would be no saving to the Department.

In the case of the non commercial agencies, the listed fees are before tax and the net impact would depend on the tax allowances and bands of the individuals concerned.  Serving public servants are generally not entitled to the payment of fees for serving on State Boards and, since January 2012, board members have been given the opportunity to waive their fees.