Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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79. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality if the living allowance that was payable to trainee gardaí was the trainee's money or if it was public money paid from the Exchequer to fund the operation of the restaurant in Templemore College; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32675/17]

Charles Flanagan (Laois, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy will be aware the matter to which she refers is connected to the ongoing consideration by the Public Accounts Committee of the Interim Internal Audit Report concerning financial procedures in the Garda College, Templemore. As the Deputy will also be aware the Committee is expected to issue their report in the near future. The Garda Commissioner has been Accounting Officer for the Garda Vote since July 2006. Very particular responsibilities lie with Accounting Officers under the law and you will appreciate that I must be careful not to interfere either with the independent exercise of her functions as Accounting Officer by the Commissioner or the work of the Public Accounts Committee.

In relation to the living allowance, it is voted money and comes from the pay subhead in the Garda Vote. Its origins date back to the 1985 Walsh Report on Garda Recruitment and Training on foot of which the Government of the day introduced a new programme for trainee Gardaí. Under the new structure, trainee Gardaí no longer attested as members on the first day and therefore no longer received Garda salary; rather they received a personal allowance to cover their day to day expenses and a living allowance which was paid directly to the Garda College to cover their meals and accommodation while attending the College.

This payment system continues to apply to trainee Gardaí today who during Phase 1 of their training programme, which lasts 32 weeks and is based in the College, are paid a personal allowance of €184 per week with the living allowance of €77.92 per week paid directly to An Garda Síochána to cover the cost of providing meals and accommodation.

My officials in their evidence to the Committee have acknowledged that the Interim Internal Audit Report takes the view that the living allowance is public money. However, having considered the evidence given before the Committee in relation to the origins of the funding model used to finance certain activities in the Garda College, and also records identified in my Department in relation to the approval of the living allowance, legal advice has been sought from the Office of the Attorney General on the nature of the allowance: whether it was public or private funding when it was paid directly to the College. Given that the allowance is at the core of many of the issues before the Committee, clarity on this point may be of assistance in relation to the background to the development of the College funding model. My Department has suggested to the Committee that it may wish to consider the nature of the living allowance and has undertaken, if it can assist the Committee on foot of the legal advice that it has sought, that it will do so.