Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 25 January 2006
815 Mr. Timmins asked the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the bonuses that were paid to his staff for the year ending 31 December 2005; the amount of money that was paid; the way in which this was calculated; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1923/06]
View answerCivil Service posts at the levels of assistant secretary and deputy secretary are covered by a scheme of performance related awards. Recommendations in regard to awards are made by the Secretary General of each Department and the operation of the scheme is overseen by the Committee for Performance Awards. The funding for awards is based on 10% of the payroll for the posts covered by the scheme. Within this overall limit, payments of up to 20% can be made to individuals.
Details of the procedures, the numbers covered by the scheme, the range of awards and the total amounts paid in Departments are outlined in the annual reports of the committee, available on the website www.finance.gov.ie. The committee does not identify the amount paid to individuals as this is regarded as personal information.
Submissions in respect of the year ending 31 December 2005 have been forwarded to the committee for its consideration. In addition, there is a scheme for recognition of exceptional performance by staff which operates across the Civil Service. This scheme has been in operation since 1996 and allows secretaries general to make awards for sustained exceptional performance to staff. Awards may be made in respect of performance above the level which would reasonably be expected in the normal course from the grade of staff involved. All staff in the Department, irrespective of grade, can nominate another staff member or a team for an award, at any time during the year.
The total expenditure on the scheme, which in my Department is called the Fiúntas scheme, may not exceed 0.2% of payroll costs. In the year ending 31 December 2005, expenditure on the Fiúntas scheme, including any tax and PRSI liability covered by my Department's pay budget was €268,963.
