State Bodies Expenditure

Dáil Éireann Debate, Friday - 16 September 2016

Friday, 16 September 2016

Questions (1922, 1923)

Dara Calleary

Question:

1922. Deputy Dara Calleary asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the number of credit cards issued to staff working in each State agency funded by her 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 she will make a statement on the matter. [24752/16]

Dara Calleary

Question:

1923. Deputy Dara Calleary asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the number of credit cards issued to staff working in any third party agency funded by her 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 she will make a statement on the matter. [24767/16]

Written answers

Minister for Children and Youth Affairs

I propose to take Questions Nos. 1922 and 1923 together.

The State Agencies under the remit of my Department were consulted in relation to credit cards and I am advised of the following in relation to the internal operational arrangements in place within each agency regarding their usage-

- Tusla, the Child and Family Agency had confirmed that it has no credit cards in issue.

- The Adoption Authority of Ireland has a credit card policy in place in which personal private expenditure is prohibited and cash advances disallowed. Under the arrangements in place by the Authority credit cards may be withdrawn if the usage policy is not fully complied with and unauthorised use will be reported to the Board and the Audit and Risk Committee. One credit card was assigned to a member of staff during the course of 2014 and four cards were in use by staff members in 2015. Details of the expenditure incurred on the cards and the bank interest paid are set out in the following table.

	2014	2015
Expenditure	€6,994.39	€22,943.63
Bank Interest	€130	€90
Total	€7,124.39	€23,033.63

- The Office of the Ombudsman for Children will be responding directly to the Deputy in relation to the position in that Office.

As regards third party agencies, the Deputy might wish to note that my Department currently provides grant funding directly to a wide range of community, local and other national organisations who are engaged in the provision of services to children and young people. The management of these grant payments by my Department is subject to compliance with the governance principles set out in Circular 13/2014 – Management of and Accountability for Grants from Exchequer Funds that was published by the Department of Public Expenditure in 2014. In this regard my Department does not routinely hold information on the credit cards that may be in use by those organisations in receipt of the grant payments.