Departmental Expenditure

Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 12 December 2019

Thursday, 12 December 2019

Ceisteanna (363)

Niall Collins

Ceist:

363. Deputy Niall Collins asked the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government the number of credit cards issued to Ministers and officials working in his Department; the amount spent on credit cards in each year since 2016; the bank interest paid on credit cards in each year since 2016; the controls in place to monitor the issuing of and the expenditure on the cards; the controls in place in each agency to monitor expenditure on personally held credit card bills that are subsequently used to recoup work-related expenses; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [52405/19]

Freagraí scríofa

Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government

My Department does not have any credit cards issued to Ministers or officials. My Department operates a Purchase Card system, which was implemented in July 2019 and was drawn down from the Office of Government Procurement framework agreement for the provision of purchasing card programmes to the Irish Public Sector. The Purchase Cards replaced credit card use in my Department.

The information requested is set out in the following table:

	2016	2017	2018	2019 (Nov)
Credit Cards
Number of Cards	5	3	5	5
Card Charges	€130	€128	€172	€193
Amount Spent	€23,778	€15,418	€12,632	€26,732
Purchase Cards
Number of Cards	N/A	N/A	N/A	20
Card Charges	N/A	N/A	N/A	€0
Amount Spent	N/A	N/A	N/A	€6,416

The credit card information in this table is up until September 2019 at which point all credit cards were cancelled. The purchase card information only begins in July 2019. There was an overlap period of 3 months during the purchase card implementation process. There was no interest charged in the period concerned.

My Department has a Purchase Card Policy which includes, inter alia, an application process for issuing purchase cards that must be approved by senior management and an expenditure monitoring and approval process.

The monitoring and controlling of credit cards in agencies under the aegis of my Department is a matter for the individual agencies concerned. Arrangements have been put in place by each Agency to facilitate the provision of information by State Bodies directly to members of the Oireachtas. The contact email address for each agency is as below:

Agency	Email address
An Bord Pleanála	[e-mail]
Ervia, Gas Networks Ireland	[e-mail]
Housing Sustainable Communities Agency	[e-mail]
Housing Finance Agency	[e-mail]
Irish Water	[e-mail]
Local Government Management Agency	[e-mail]
Ordnance Survey Ireland	[e-mail]
Property Registration Authority	[e-mail]
Pyrite Resolution Board	[e-mail]
Residential Tenancies Board	[e-mail]
Valuation Office	[e-mail]
Land Development Agency	[e-mail]
Office of the Planning Regulator	[e-mail]