Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 12 October 2005
327 Ms Burton asked the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the bonus or merit payments awarded to senior officials and staff each year since 2000, detailing the management and staff category; the purpose and the amount of the award and the highest award made and to whom. [28391/05]
Amharc ar fhreagraCivil service posts at the levels of assistant secretary and deputy secretary are covered by a scheme of performance related awards. The operation of the scheme is overseen by the committee for performance awards. The funding for awards is based on 10% of the payroll for the posts covered by the scheme. Within this overall limit, payments of up to 20% can be made to individuals.
Details of the procedures, the numbers covered by the scheme, the range of awards and the total amounts paid in Departments are outlined in the annual reports of the committee, available on the website www.finance.gov.ie. The committee does not identify the amount paid to individuals as this is regarded as personal information. Prior to the introduction of the current award scheme which came into effect from January 2002, a bonus scheme based on 4% of the pay bill for the group of assistant secretaries and which provided for payments of up to 15% for the deputy secretary grade applied.
The total awards made in the Department under the terms of this scheme in respect of the bonus periods 1999-2000 and 2000-end 2001 were €30,608, to six people, and €53,432, to seven people, respectively.
In addition there is a scheme for recognition of exceptional performance by staff which operates across the Civil Service. This scheme has been in operation since 1996 and allows Secretaries General to make awards for sustained exceptional performance to staff. Awards may be made in respect of performance above the level which would reasonably be expected in the normal course from the grade of staff involved. All staff in the Department, irrespective of grade, can nominate another staff member or a team for an award, at any time during the year. The total expenditure on the scheme, which in my Department is called the Fiúntas scheme, may not exceed 0.2% of payroll costs.
The following tabular statement shows the expenditure on the scheme for the period 2001 to date, including the number of awards made, the highest awards for individuals and teams. Details in respect of 2000 are not readily available but will be forwarded to the Deputy as soon as possible. The expenditure quoted is gross expenditure and includes any tax and PRSI liability covered by my Department's pay budget.
|
2001 |
2002 |
2003 |
2004 |
2005 |
|
|
Gross expenditure |
€68,920 |
€111,457 |
€103,708 |
€198,879 |
€104,550 |
|
No. of individual awards |
26 |
36 |
67 |
46 |
31 |
|
Highest individual award |
€381 |
€1,000 |
€500 |
€750 |
€1,000 |
|
No. of team awards |
15 |
12 |
42 |
48 |
27 |
|
Highest team award |
€2,100 |
€2,000 |
€5,000 |
€8,825 |
€5,300 |
