asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs the amount refunded by the EEC and other organisations to cover the cost of all journeys outside the State made by him and officials of his Department in the year ended 31st March, 1974.
Ceisteanna — Questions. Oral Answers. - Ministerial Visits Abroad.
49.
The estimated total cost of all official journeys outside the State made by the Minister and officials of his Department in the year ended 31st March, 1974, was £280,000. Of this amount some £190,000 relates to the cost of transferring officers, their families and household effects to posts abroad and between posts abroad, home leave for such officers and their families, travel of children attending school in Ireland, as well as normal travel on official business within the countries of accreditation.
The estimated cost of travel abroad, including subsistence payments in respect of such travel, by the Minister and officials of his Department stationed at headquarters was some £90,000 in the same period. This includes an amount of £5,343 in respect of the Minister's own travel of which £1,077 was refunded by the EEC and other international organisations. The refund for officials was £7,377. The total amount refunded in the year ended 31st March was therefore, £8,454.
Did the Minister say £8,450?
I gave a number for figures. Is the Deputy referring to the total amount?
I am referring to the amount refunded by the EEC.
It is £8,454.
Is the Minister aware that when this matter was raised in the Dáil on a previous occasion the figure of a £¼ million was given as the total amount expended by the Minister and officials on these type of journeys and on that occasion the Minister for Finance stated that the bulk of that money was refunded from EEC sources? Would the Minister bring it to the notice of the Minister for Finance that he gave wrong information to the Dáil on that occasion.
Again.
I am aware there appears to have been a good deal of confusion on this matter, some of it arising from the Deputy himself, who seems to have been under the impression that the full £280,000 was spent by the Minister with his officials on travel from Ireland to various points abroad. The position is as I have stated in my reply.
Question No. 50.
It is quite extraordinary that the Minister should put his own interpretation on this.
Deputy Molloy, a question please.
Is the Minister aware that the question which I put on the other occasion, which is similar to the one I put here today, asked the amount paid by the State to cover the cost of all journeys outside the State made by the Minister for Foreign Affairs and officials of his Department. I got a figure which was in the region of a £¼ million. If I got a misleading answer then, the confusion was on the Minister's side of the House.
The figure the Deputy got was £280,000, being the estimated total cost of all official journeys outside the State made by the Minister and officials of his Department in the year in question. This is an answer to the question the Deputy put down. The Deputy was then under a misapprehension, because he understood this as meaning that the Minister touring around with his officials, generated all this expense.
I am not asking the Minister to tell me what I understood. I asked a straight question.
I have given the Deputy a full answer.
Next question please.
Do I take it that roughly £272,000 net was the amount it cost the State for the £8,000 refunded?
The Deputy is correct.
Does the Minister think that the flamboyant recalling of ambassadors at colossal expense to this country was worth the expenditure involved?
This is hardly relevant.
Surely we are dealing with expenses of a Government Department and nothing is more relevant than that, I submit, to this House.
The recalling of ambassadors for consultation from time to time is standard practice in all countries which have a foreign service, as the Deputy should be aware, and there was nothing flamboyant or unusual about the method of their recall.
There certainly was.