asked the Minister for the Public Service (a) the cost of all official receptions given by him in the year ended 31st March, 1974, and (b) the cost of all journeys outside the State made by him and officials of his Department since 31st March, 1973.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Official Receptions and Travel Costs.
39.
The Department of the Public Service was established on 1st November, 1973, and, accordingly, my reply refers to the period since that date. Relevant expenditure incurred by me and officers of my Department prior to 1st November, 1973, is included in my reply as Minister for Finance.
No official receptions were given by me in the year ended 31st March, 1974; neither did I make any journeys outside the State in the period since 1st November, 1973. The cost of journeys outside the State by officials of my Department since 1st November, 1973, amounted to £1,900 of which £140 was recouped from the EEC Commission.
Arising out of the Minister's reply which was read with inordinate haste, and in view of the facts given by the Minister, is the Minister concerned about the inordinate expenditure by the Minister for Foreign Affairs who spent £280,000 last year on trips abroad with his officials?
This question is addressed to the Minister for Finance.
It is over £¼ million. It is a scandal.
I am very interested in matters of public expenditure and rather startled by the knowledge that the cost of reply to Deputy Molloy's question exceeded £587 and involved 422 official hours.
That is a red herring.
Does the Minister consider it appropriate that this House and the community, the taxpayers and the ratepayers, are entitled to have the information which I have extracted by way of Parliamentary question? I am not responsible for the cost, which the Minister says was around £500, remembering that the Minister for Foreign Affairs spent more than £250,000 travelling the far corners of the world with no result for this country.
Most of the money to which the Deputy referred was refunded to this country by the EEC and the many other organisations to which the Minister for Foreign Affairs contributed a great deal on behalf of the people of this country.
Would the Minister like to say what the net expenditure was in relation to the Minister for Foreign Affairs?
I have not got that information.
40.
asked the Minister for Finance (a) the cost of all official receptions given by him in the year ended 31st March, 1974, and (b) the cost of all journeys outside the State made by him, his Parliamentary Secretary and officials of his Department since 31st March, 1973.
The cost of official receptions given by me in the year ended 31st March, 1974, was £536 and related to a reception at the opening of the Central Computer Bureau in Kilmainham in June, 1973, a visit by the Parliamentary Secretary in charge of the Civil Service Department, UK, Mr. K. Baker, M.P., and party in September, 1973, and a visit of the president of the European Investment Bank in November, 1973.
The cost net to the Exchequer of official journeys by me in the period 1st April, 1973, to 31st March, 1974, amounted to £311 and related to the meeting of the Committee of Twenty in Washington from 28th July to 2nd August, 1973; an IMF/World Bank meeting in Nairobi from 21st September to 28th September, 1973; an EEC Finance Ministers' meeting in Brussels from 8th to 11th November, 1973; an EEC Finance Ministers' meeting in Brussels on 16th and 17th December, 1973; a Committee of Twenty meeting in Rome from 16th to 19th January, 1974; and the meeting of the Club of Rome in Salzburg from 3rd to 6th February, 1974.
My Parliamentary Secretary made no journeys abroad during the period in question. The gross cost of journeys abroad by 111 officials of my Department—a number of whom made more than one trip—in the same period amounted to £44,700 of which £21,935 was recouped to the Department from the EEC Commission, the International Monetary Fund and the International Institute of Administrative Sciences.