Written Answers. - Departmental Appointments.
Michael D. Higgins
Ceist:
66
Mr. M. Higgins
asked the
Taoiseach
the ad hoc advisory committees and groups in relation to policy or implementation, the statutory committees, permanent groups, interdepartmental groups, advisers, consultants and unestablished civil servants appointed in his Department; and the cost or remuneration in each case paid since July 1997 to date.
[8691/99]
The ad hoc advisory committees and groups, statutory committees, permanent and interdepartmental groups relating to policy or implementation for which my Department has responsibility are as follows:
Statutory Structures: National Economic and Social Council; National Economic and Social Forum, and the National Statistics Board.
Permanent Groups: Monitoring mechanisms on implementation of social partnership agreements IFSC clearing house group and associated working groups – funds; banking and treasury insurance; and public sector group Information Society Commission.
Interdepartmental groups: Implementation group on the information society; strategy group on employment and unemployment; Millennium group of senior officials; interdepartmental group on national security; interdepartmental committee on practice and procedures for protection of classified information, and interdepartmental committee on protection of classified official information.
Ad hoc advisory committees-groups: Basic income working group; stadium steering committee; ad hoc committee on State funerals; SMI implementation group of heads of offices; SMI co-ordinating group; Garda implementation steering group; national centre for partnership board; national centre for partnership liaison group; all-party Oireachtas committee on SMI; working group on human resource management; working group on financial management; working group on regulatory reform; working group on information technology working group on quality customer service; working group on open and transparent service; performance management group; group on extension of SMI to the wider public service, and expert technical group on Agenda 2000.
Permanent: Ministers and Secretaries General group on EU policy, and senior officials group to assist the Ministers and Secretaries General group on EU policy.
The cost or remuneration arising from the employment of advisers, consultants, contract staff and unestablished civil servants employed as a result of the workings of the groups and committees listed above are as follows.
Prospectus consultants have been appointed to undertake a feasibility study into an IFSC training facility. This will be funded jointly at a cost of £10,000 to be shared equally by the Department and the Financial Services Industry Association.
The basic income working group awarded contracts to economic consultants to undertake a study on the viability of introducing a basic income system in Ireland. The contracts were awarded to Professor Clark, St. John's University, New York, and the ESRI for phase 1 and to the ESRI for phase 2. Some £42,820 of the cost of the consultancy has been paid to date.
Consultancy costs and director's salaries paid by the Information Society Commission since 1 July 1997 amounted to £149,411.56 and £48,526.88 respectively.
A fee of £800 was paid to Professor Philip Beaumont of the University of Glasgow for addressing a closed seminar of the high level group on trade union recognition on 1 December 1997.
Price Waterhouse Coopers were appointed in 1996 to undertake a review of the Naval Service and Air Corps. The review was conducted over an 18 month period and the final report was submitted to the steering group in February 1998. Total remuneration, including expenses, was £185,000.
