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Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Wednesday, 9 Oct 2002

Vol. 554 No. 5

Written Answers. - Departmental Appointments.

Bernard Allen

Ceist:

447 Mr. Allen asked the Minister for Finance the solicitors or barristers who were appointed since July 1997 as members or chairpersons of any board or committee or other body, advisers, consultants, or as holders of any other position or office other than judicial office under the aegis of or in his Department; the name of the person in each case; if these persons are a solicitor or barrister; the position to which these persons were appointed; the date of appointment; the date these persons ceased to hold the position if applicable; the remuneration paid since July 1997; and if the holding of particular legal qualifications or experience was a requirement for the position in question. [17250/02]

The details sought by the Deputy are as follows.

William Fry Solicitors seconded a solicitor to my Department for a two-year period from 6 December 1999 to provide advice to the Cen tral Public Private Partnership – PPP – Unit on legal issues in relation to the PPP process. The annual fee paid was €63,487 plus VAT. The secondment ended in December 2001.
Solicitors have also been on secondment to the public expenditure division of my Department. McCann Fitzgerald Solicitors seconded a solicitor October 1999 to March 2001; the total fee paid was €69,542. Matheson Ormsby Prentice Solicitors seconded a solicitor from May 2001 to date; the total fee paid to date is €107,055.
The following appointments were made to boards under the aegis of my Department.
Mr. Thomas K. Madden – solicitor – was appointed to the Board of Ordnance Survey Ireland on 4 March 2002. The remuneration for the position is €6,349 per annum.
Ms Inge Clissmann, Senior Counsel, is chairperson of the Civil Service Disciplinary Code Appeal Board. Ms Clissmann was first appointed in April 1995 and has been re-appointed annually since then. Ms Clissmann is paid €635 for each sitting of the appeal board. Since 26 July 1997, Ms Clissmann has been paid a total of €22,188.67.
Mr. Gerard Durcan – barrister – was appointed as chairperson of the Civil Service Arbitration Board on 1 July 1997 and remains in the position. He is paid €666.61 per sitting day and has been paid €11,999 since his appointment.
Mr. Gerry Kelly – barrister – was appointed as Civil Service adjudicator on 1 July 1997 and he ceased to hold the position on 30 June 2000. The fee for the position is €317.43 per sitting day and he received €2,539 during his term of office. Ms Niamh Stewart – barrister – was appointed to the position on 28 May 2001 and has been paid €2,230 to date.
Legal qualifications and experience are not a requirement for the previous two positions but appointees to date have a legal background. Other members of the arbitration board have not held legal qualifications.
I appointed the following people with legal qualifications to the valuation tribunal. Members of the tribunal are paid a daily fee when engaged in the tribunal's work:

Name

Profession

Capacity

Date ofappointment

Date of cessation

Remuneration

Mr. Henry Abbott SC

Barrister

Chairperson

19 October 2000

(Resigned 26 February 2002)

€11,320.35

Mr. Frank Malone

Solicitor

Deputy Chairperson

11 June 2001

10 June 2006

€4,528.62

Ms Margaret Cordial

Barrister

Member

11 June 2001

(Resigned 23 November 2001)

€55.61

Mr. Michael Coughlan

Solicitor

Member

17 February 2002 (Re-appointed for a period of one month)

16 March 2002

€613.98

Mr. Brian Larkin

Barrister

Member

17 April 2002

€204.66

Mr. Joseph Murray

Barrister

Member

17 April 2002

€263.33

Mr. John O'Donnell

Barrister (Senior Counsel)

Chairman

17 April 2002

€1937.25

Mr. G. Danaher – barrister – was appointed to the Central Bank Board on 15 October 1998. Directors, other thanex officio directors, for example, the Secretary General of the Department of Finance, receive remuneration of €12,697.38 per annum with effect from 1 January 2001. Up to this remuneration was £5,000 per annum. Members of the Central Bank Board are not required to be legally qualified.
Mr. G. Danaher – barrister – was appointed to the Interim Irish Financial Services Regulatory Authority on 18 April 2002. He receives remuneration of €12,697.38 per annum. Members of the interim authority are not required to be legally qualified.
The Stock Exchange Act, 1995 and the Investment Intermediaries Act, 1995 provide for the establishment of panels from which committees will be appointed, by the Governor of the Central Bank, on an ad hoc basis, to determine whether there has been a breach by an approved stock exchange, or one of its member firms, or by an investment intermediary, of a condition, or requirement, imposed by the supervisory authority – the Central Bank. The second schedules to both Acts sets down that at least two members of these panels be barristers or solicitors and that any committee formed shall be comprised of at least three persons, at least one of whom shall be a barrister or solicitor. As no determination committee has yet been appointed, no payments have been made to any member of these panels.
These panels were established for a period of three years, commencing on 1 April 2000 and each comprised the same 19 persons, 11 of whom are either senior counsel, barristers or solicitors, as follows:

Mr. Noel Whelan

Barrister at Law

Mr. Andy O'Rourke

Solicitor

Mr. John Reidy

Solicitor

Ms Helen O'Brien

Solicitor

Ms Caroline Williams

Barrister at Law

Ms Brid Maguire Mimnagh

Solicitor

Mr. George C. McGrath

Solicitor

Mr. Edmond Honohan SC

Senior Counsel

Ms Elma Lynch

Solicitor

Mr. James O'Donoghue

Solicitor

Ms Catriona Hartmann

Barrister at Law

The policy committee of the State Claims Agency was appointed on 17 April 2002. Judge Frank Martin, a former judge of the Circuit Court, was appointed as an ordinary member of the committee. He is paid a fee of €10,157 per annum. Particular legal expertise is not a requirement of appointment to the committee. Members are however required to have substantial experience or expertise in one or more of a number of specified fields including litigation and the law relating to civil liability.
The Revenue Commissioners have provided the following details of their appointments. In September 1999, the Revenue Commissioners established a new review procedure involving a three-member panel of external reviewers. The review procedure can be initiated by taxpayers when they are dissatisfied with the manner in which Revenue powers are being exercised, or indeed with any aspect of a Revenue audit or enquiry. Of the panel, Ms Ita Mangan is a barrister and Ms Edwina Dunn is a solicitor. The advertisement for appointing external reviewers stated that "applicants, who may be retired persons should have relevant experience (for example in the legal, academic or accountancy fields)". Total payments made by Revenue from September 1999 are as follows: Ms Ita Mangan, €6,025; Ms Edwina Dunn, €26,177. The contract with the external reviewers is ongoing.
Six firms of solicitors, listed below, were appointed by Revenue to provide legal services to Revenue for the purpose of collecting outstanding tax and interest. The terms of the contracts are from 1 January 2000 to 31 December, 2004. It was a requirement of the tendering process that applicants be practising solicitors. Total payments made by Revenue to each firm for the years 2000 and 2001, and up to end July 2002, are set out below:

2000

2001

2002

Holmes O'Malley Sexton

188,728

426,801

290,286

Ivor Fitzpatrick & Co.

149,090

410,180

303,388

George V Maloney & Co.

164,495

361,315

208,832

Mason Hayes & Curran

142,505

339,405

251,900

Matheson Ormsby Prentice

204,669

550,247

361,626

Pierse & Fitzgibbon

235,379

418,171

385,171

Over the period in question, the Revenue Commissioners have engaged the following solicitors and barristers to act as consultants or provide advice on the basis of their particular expertise in areas of the Capital Taxes Acts. The details are as follows:

Name

Period engaged

Remuneration

Messrs William Fry, Solicitors

August 1998.

3,072

Caroline Devlin, Solicitor

August 1998

3,072

Tony Fitzpatrick, Barrister

June/July 2001

3,174

Brian Bohan, Solicitor

May/July 2001

3,809

Tony Fitzpatrick, Barrister

Early 1999 to early 2000

8,253

In line with best practice, the Revenue Commissioners established an audit committee in December 1998. The role of the committee is to oversee the internal audit function in Revenue and to advise the Revenue Board on the operation and development of that function.
The committee comprises senior officers from a variety of bodies. One former member, Mr. Donal Cahalane, who was head of internal audit in the Central Bank at the time, and one current member, Ms Catherine Treacy, chief executive and Registrar of Deeds and Titles, Land Registry-Registry of Deeds, have legal qualifications. Both were appointed by the board to the committee with effect from December 1998. Both Mr. Cahalane and Ms Treacy hold a BL qualification. Mr. Cahalane resigned from the committee in November 2001 to take up an assignment with the World Bank in Washington.
Members of the audit committee are not remunerated for this role. The appointment of Mr. Cahalane and Ms Treacy to the committee was not contingent on their legal qualifications. The Office of Public Works have provided the following details of their appointments. Following a tendering process for the provision of legal services to the Office of Public Works, the contract was awarded to Beauchamps Solicitors with effect from 8 October 2001 for an initial 12 month period. The contract has been extended for the second optional period of 12 months and will expire on 3 October 2003. It was a requirement of the position that the project manager should have practised as a solicitor for a minimum of five years.
The project manager, Ms Ruth Geaney, was appointed head of legal services and is based in the Office of Public Works on a full-time basis until the expiry of the contract. Total payments to Beauchamps for legal services amount to €241,981.

Bernard Allen

Ceist:

448 Mr. Allen asked the Minister for Finance the amount paid since July 1997 to date in 2002 in fees, salary, allowances including delegates' allowances, expenses and other payments to any person in or under the aegis of his Department who is or was a special adviser within the meaning of the Ethics in Public Office Act, 1995; the name of the person in each case; the amount paid to each person; the breakdown as between salary, allowances, expenses and other payments; the date on which each person was appointed; if, in the case of persons no longer holding such posi tion, the date on which the appointment ceased [17265/02]

The information requested by the Deputy is set out in the following table:

Name

Michael Fitzpatrick

Mandy Johnston (Note1)

Noeleen McCreevy (Note 2)

Position Held

Personal Assistant

Press and Information Officer

Personal Secretary

Date of Appointment

27/06/97

27/06/97

27/06/97

Salary Details

01/07/97 to 02/04/98

€27,262.19

€44,661.27

€25,841.79

03/04/98 to 01/04/99

€29,956.87

€51,366.83

€31,523.56

02/04/99 to 30/03/00

€31,683.89

€58,394.38

€31,112.91

31/3/00 to 29/03/01

€34,642.66

€63,289.03

€33,213.82

30/03/01 to 20/12/01

€26,976.06

€51,462.75

€26,390.25

21/12/01 to 14/03/02

€8,840.46

€17,035.62

€8,643.87

15/03/02 to 26/09/02

€22,485.56

€17,776.39

€20,314.03

Total Salary

€181,847.69

€303,986.27

€177,040.23

Allowance Details

Michael Fitzpatrick

Mandy Johnston

Noeleen McCreevy (Note 3)

01/07/97 to 02/04/98

Nil

Nil

€1,801.32

03/04/98 to 01/04/99

Nil

Nil

€2,626.62

02/04/99 to 30/03/00

Nil

Nil

€2,629.73

31/3/00 to 29/03/01

Nil

Nil

€2,861.16

30/03/01 to 20/12/01

Nil

Nil

€2,289.40

21/12/01 to 14/03/02

Nil

Nil

€729.85

15/03/02 to 26/09/02

Nil

Nil

€1,692.74

Total Allowances

0.00

0.00

€14,630.82

Expenses Details

Michael Fitzpatrick

Mandy Johnston

Noeleen McCreevy

01/07/97 to 02/04/98

€4,461.82

€3,485.66

Nil

03/04/98 to 01/04/99

€7,734.47

€2,733.35

€1,341.39

02/04/99 to 30/03/00

€6,750.59

€2,243.93

€734.35

31/3/00 to 29/03/01

€8,863.56

€2,028.46

€812.58

30/03/01 to 20/12/01

€9,269.15

€1,390.60

Nil

21/12/01 to 14/03/02

Nil

€416.98

Nil

15/03/02 to 26/09/02

€4,554.94

€1,023.88

Nil

Total Expenses

€41,634.53

€13,322.86

€2,888.32

Overall Total Payment

€223,482.22

€317,309.13

€194,559.37

Notes
1.Ms Mandy Johnston left office on the 6 June 2002 and was replaced by Mr. Dermot Ryan who is a serving assistant principal – higher scale – in this Department.
2.Since the 1980s, Ms McCreevy has been employed as a Deputy's secretarial assistant and would have been paid out of the Vote for the Houses of the Oireachtas. Upon the appointment of a Deputy to an Officeholding position, such Dáil secretarial assistants may be appointed as employees of the relevant Officeholder's Department and are then paid from the relevant departmental Vote. The information above relates to payments to Ms McCreevy in her capacity as personal secretary to the Minister for Finance.
3.Ms McCreevy is in receipt of the standard 10% "attraction allowance" which is payable to a former secretarial assistant who has been appointed as a personal secretary to an officeholder.
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