The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has responsibility for management of the public services funded under two Votes. Key areas of responsibility of the Department include foreign policy advice and co-ordination, foreign representation of Ireland and provision of consular services through a network of over 70 diplomatic missions, promotion of Ireland abroad, especially in economic matters, management of Ireland's development aid programme and the issuing of passports.
Gross expenditure in 2010 under Vote 28 amounted to €224 million. Two thirds of that expenditure was on administration subheads. This included salary costs of €93 million, in respect of some 1,300 staff. Office premises expenses of €27 million were incurred, including premises costs for Ireland's network of embassies and missions. Non-administration expenditure under the Vote amounted to €70 million in total in 2010. The most significant expenditure category was €52 million in contributions to international organisations, up from €37 million in 2009. Appropriations-in-aid amounted to €43 million, including over €36 million in fees for passports, visas and other consular services.
Vote 29, for international co-operation, is used to fund a substantial part of Ireland's programme of official development assistance, which is administered by the Department's Irish Aid unit. Gross expenditure in 2010 under the Vote amounted to €524 million. Administration costs under Vote 29 amounted to €30 million, or about 6% of the total. This included payroll costs of some €18 million in respect of 209 staff. Twenty five of those staff were recruited locally by Irish Aid missions abroad.
Spending under the Vote accounts for around 77% of Ireland's official development aid expenditure. Chapter 24 of the Comptroller and Auditor General's report was compiled in order to give a more complete account of the programme and of how the resources provided are used. Programme expenditure includes funding for bilateral and multilateral development aid programmes, emergency assistance, and contributions to international development funds and agencies. Analysis of spending trends indicates that programme expenditure increased to a peak of €921 million in 2008. Since then, Irish development aid expenditure has fallen. Total programme spending in 2010 was €676 million, which was almost 27% below the 2008 figure.
The UN has a long-standing target for developed countries to contribute development aid equivalent to 0.7% of GNP each year. Ireland's programme hit a peak of 0.59% of GNP in 2008, but had fallen back to 0.53% in 2010. Nevertheless, compared to other OECD countries, Ireland ranked ninth highest in terms of its development aid contribution. Given the nature of development aid and how it is delivered, the Department requires robust systems for ensuring that spending is used in the way intended, and achieves maximum impact for the countries and communities receiving the aid. For that reason, the chapter examines the Department's systems for audit and evaluation of its spending.
The Department has in place a specialist evaluation and audit unit that aims to provide assurance that funds are used for their intended purpose and that value for money is achieved. The work of the unit is overseen by the Department's audit committee. The unit's audit work focuses particularly on the appropriateness of the accounting and financial management systems of organisations through which aid is delivered, including through government agencies in selected programme countries and non-governmental organisations. In practice, audit coverage of approximately 95% of expenditure in programme countries has been achieved in recent years through a combination of audits carried out by the audit unit, audits commissioned by Irish Aid and audits commissioned by partner organisations or by national audit offices in recipient countries. For other bilateral assistance programmes, the Department did not have a structured system in place to ensure audit reports were received in a timely way, or for their review by the evaluation and audit unit. The unit also carries out an extensive programme of evaluation of aid on a cyclical basis, co-ordinated with its strategic planning and with formal procedures to track and follow up on recommendations. Formal reviews of the Department's evaluation capacity and of its effectiveness in the provision of aid have generally been positive, although one review noted that the Department's system of performance reporting on aid effectiveness required development. An international research report published in 2010 found that Ireland was the only bilateral aid donor that ranked in the top ten across all key quality areas in the delivery of development aid assistance.
I will now turn to chapter 23. The first Global Irish Economic Forum took place at Farmleigh in September 2009, and was co-ordinated by the Department. The forum's broad objectives were to explore how Irish people at home and abroad, and others with a strong interest in Ireland, could work together and contribute to overall efforts at economic recovery, and to examine ways in which Ireland and its global community could develop a more strategic relationship with each other, particularly in economic matters. The examination found that the cost of running the forum was relatively modest, at around €330,000. The Department's report on the forum's proceedings identified 22 medium-term objectives and 37 specific initiatives for action in the short term, which had been proposed by forum participants. The proposals covered a range of areas from the importance of building and developing networks to the need for supports in education, business and green technology. While they were not formally endorsed by the Government, the proposals were available to inform policy and administrative adjustments.
The general conclusion of the examination was that the usefulness of the forum concept lies in its capacity to bring forth new ideas which can lead to joined-up Government measures, while better aligning Ireland's unique strengths and productive capacity with the economic opportunities available. There was a reasonable level of tracking and reporting on the proposals made by participants. The report recommends that it would be worthwhile to evaluate the overall contributions of the global forum concept and the opportunities to exploit further the networks which have been established.
Since the Comptroller and Auditor General's report was completed, a second global forum was held in October 2011. The Accounting Officer will be able to brief the committee on the outcomes from that meeting.