My Department in its current configuration was established in September 2020 and the reply relates to the period from that date.
Redundancy or severance payments in the Civil Service generally arise with respect to specific categories of employees, as determined by the Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform (DPENDR) and approved by Government. There was one severance payment and one redundancy payment made over that period in respect of my Department, as set out in the table below. The contractual entitlements arising were calculated in accordance with the rules as determined above. The payments did not arise out of settlement agreements outside the normal arrangements and the issue of separate sanction did not arise.
Year
|
Number of Redundancy payments
|
Number of Severance Payments
|
Amount
|
Year
|
Number of Redundancy payments
|
Number of Severance Payments
|
Amount
|
2024
|
|
1
|
€219,240.00
|
2023
|
1
|
|
€16,603.90
|
Total Value
|
|
|
€235,843.90
|
For the bodies under the aegis of my Department, this is an operational matter for each body and my Department will request the relevant bodies to reply directly to the Deputies with the information requested in respect of their organisations. It should be noted that while my Department provides grant assistance to many organisations and programmes across the Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport & Media sectors, we do not have any operational role in those organisations.