Trevor Sargent
Question:159 Mr. Sargent asked the Minister for Finance the plans he has to change the situation whereby a civil servant travelling to a meeting by road receives a higher rate than a civil servant travelling by rail. [25431/01]
Written Answers. - Travel Expenses.
Under the Civil Service travel and subsistence guidelines, all official travel should be undertaken using the most cost effective, practicable means of transport. Public transport should be used wherever possible and use of private cars by civil servants for official business should be used only where, in the particular circumstances, no suitable public transport is available, public transport is available only at equal or greater cost or the use of public transport would result in the loss of official time which it is necessary to avoid.
If, for any of the above reasons, a civil servant must use his/her private car for official business then he/she will be paid an appropriate motor mileage rate. Motor mileage rates are approved from time to time by the Minister for Finance. The rates are determined in accordance with an agreed formula which is designed to reimburse staff for the reasonable out of pocket expenditure necessarily incurred by them in using their cars on official journeys. The mileage rates are set following consultation and agreement with the Civil Service unions under the scheme of conciliation and arbitration for the Civil Service. I do not have any plans to change the present arrangements.