I propose to take Questions Nos. 190 and 191 together.
The only review which had a direct bearing on the closure of the Agency for Personal Service Overseas, APSO, was that of the Ireland Aid review committee in 2002. The committee's report recommended that APSO should be integrated into Ireland Aid, now Development Co-operation Ireland. The costs of this review are not directly attributable to the closure costs of APSO as it had a much wider remit, covering the entire Irish overseas aid programme.
The direct costs associated with the closure of APSO are set out in table 1 below. They include: the appointment of the liquidator, Grant Farrell Sparks, totalling €11,495; other related fees such as legal and audit fees amounting to €30,430; the cost of five international field staff redundancies amounting to €89,037; the cost of local field staff redundancies which amounted to €320,884 — see table 2; and the cost of surplus equipment donated to non-governmental organisations which amounted to €99,633. All direct development worker contracts were honoured until completion. There were no financial costs to funded organisations as a result of the closure of APSO. Also, no APSO headquarters staff retired at that time. The total estimated costs associated with the closure of APSO currently stands at €551,479. Eighteen former APSO staff members were absorbed into the Department of Foreign Affairs and the cost of their salaries on an annual basis in 2004 was €716,159. The allocation for 2005 was €784,281.
Table 3 indicates the number of persons who were assigned to overseas placements by APSO for each year from 1997 to the date of its closure. It includes the categories of such placement, whether long-term or short-term, the type of work undertaken and the costs involved. Further detail is available in the annual reports of APSO.
In addition to direct placements, APSO administered the personnel co-funding scheme for development workers in non-governmental organisations and missionary organisations as per table 4. Following the integration of APSO into the Department of Foreign Affairs, these personnel funding activities have been administered by my Department. In 2005, an allocation of €15 million was made to support over 1,350 development volunteers. It is anticipated that, when the company charged with liquidation has completed its work, and following the sale of all of APSO's assets, there will be a net balance of receipts over expenditure. The provisional balance currently stands at €183,051.
Table 1 pertains to costs associated with the closure of APSO to date.
|
Costs
|
|
€
|
Grant Farrell Sparks — liquidator
|
11,495
|
Legal fees
|
30,430
|
International staff redundancies
|
89,037
|
Local staff redundancies
|
320,884
|
Equipment donated to NGOs
|
99,633
|
Total costs to date
|
551,479
|
Table 2 provides details of field staff redundancy payments.
Region or country
|
Total Paid
|
|
€
|
Kenya — Regional office
|
38,065
|
The Gambia — Regional office
|
51,666
|
South Africa — Regional office
|
6,000
|
Central America — Regional office
|
105,000
|
Tanzania — Country office
|
41,147
|
Cambodia — Country office
|
55,136
|
Zimbabwe — Country office
|
23,870
|
Total
|
320,884
|
Table 3 provides details of APSO assignments.
Year
|
Number of long-term APSO assignments, two years or more
|
Short-term mentoring programme, one week to three months
|
Election monitors, average of ten days
|
Total overseas APSO assignments
|
Total cost of APSO related assignments
|
1997
|
483
|
81
|
120
|
684
|
7,148,332
|
1998
|
426
|
91
|
103
|
620
|
5,705,084
|
1999
|
355
|
87
|
19
|
461
|
4,544,788
|
2000
|
332
|
152
|
64
|
548
|
3,530,447
|
2001
|
210
|
134
|
60
|
404
|
2,899,295
|
2002
|
90
|
114
|
92
|
296
|
2,410,111
|
2003
|
15
|
110
|
29
|
154
|
528,867
|
Table 4 provides details of APSO personnel co-funding scheme.
Year
|
Total support to personnel related assignments including Missionary and NGO sector.
|
|
€
|
1997
|
11,963,820
|
1998
|
11,777,365
|
1999
|
13,659,821
|
2000
|
11,416,485
|
2001
|
9,421,608
|
2002
|
10,755,609
|
2003
|
12,429,342
|