Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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1516. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of credit cards issued to Ministers and officials working in his Department; the amount spent on credit cards by his Department in 2014 and in 2015; the amount of bank interest paid on credit cards in 2014 and 2015; the controls in place to monitor the issuing of and the expenditure on these cards; the controls in place in each agency to monitor expenditure on personally held credit card bills that are subsequently used to recoup work related expenses; if these controls are being reviewed in view of recent events in agencies funded by the HSE; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24735/16]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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1517. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of credit cards issued to staff working in each State agency funded by his Department, in tabular form; the number of cards per funded agency; the amount spent by credit card in 2014 and 2015 by each agency; the amount of bank interest paid on credit cards in 2014 and 2015; the controls in place to monitor the issuing of and the expenditure on these cards; the controls in place in each agency to monitor expenditure on personally held credit card bills that are subsequently used to recoup work related expenses; if these controls are being reviewed in view of recent events in agencies funded by the HSE; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24750/16]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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1518. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of credit cards issued to staff working in any third party agency funded by his Department, in tabular form; the number of cards per funded agency; the amount spent by credit card in 2014 and 2015 by each agency; the controls in place to monitor the issuing of and the expenditure on these cards; the controls in place in each agency to monitor expenditure on credit card bills that are subsequently used to recoup work related expense; if these controls are being reviewed in view of recent events in agencies funded by the HSE; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24765/16]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 1516 to 1518, inclusive, together.

The information the Deputy has requested in respect of my Department is set out in the following table.

All of the credit cards, with the exception of two, are issued to officials of my Department who undertake official foreign travel on a frequent basis and are used for the payment of hotel bills and other associated costs while on official duty abroad. Very occasionally credit cards are used for vouched expenses set within the limits advised by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform.

The two credit cards not used for foreign travel are allocated to officials who have responsibilities for the Library Service and Corporate Affairs Divisions, where some purchases in those business areas can only be made by means of a credit card payment.

Neither the Minister of State nor I use an official credit card.

The following control measures are operated by my Department to ensure proper use of all official credit cards:

1. An applications for a credit card must be authorised by the relevant Head of Division, setting out a business case need for the card and approved by the relevant senior Management Board member.

2. All payments using these official credit cards must be fully offset/ reconciled against the relevant foreign travel expense claim.

3. Credit Card holders are obliged to submit associated receipts to their relevant line manager prior to approval of the associated foreign travel claim and subsequently retain these receipts for a period of 7 years for possible audit purposes.

4. A designated officer in my Department carries out regular checks to ensure all credit card transactions for foreign travel are fully recorded and reconciled.

These control measures are reviewed regularly by my Department. In addition, all transactions involving official credit cards issued are subject to an annual audit by the Comptroller and Auditor General.

The use of credit cards by the staff of the state agencies and third party agencies funded by my Department is an operational matter for these agencies themselves.