The Department of Rural and Community Development was established in July 2017. I can confirm that between the years 2017 and 2024, no staff members of my department received any exit payments. However, in 2020, two Ministerial advisers in my Department were paid severance payments. These were made at the end of their contracts, following a change of Government, in accordance with Department of Public Expenditure NDP Delivery and Reform guidelines. They also received redundancy payments as provided for under the Redundancy Payments Acts 1967- 2014.