Oireachtas

Costs up 346% at Department

THE cost of employing non Civil Service staff at one Government Department has more than trebled

Thu Mar 07 1996 - 00:00

THE cost of employing non Civil Service staff at one Government Department has more than trebled. At another it has trebled, and at a third it has doubled since the present Government took over. In written replies to Mr Ivor Callely (FF), the Minister for Transport, Energy and Communications, Mr Lowry, said the estimated cost at his Department this year was £161,889, compared with £46,758 in 1994 - a rise of 346 per cent. The Minister for Tourism and Trade, Mr Kenny, estimated this year's costs at £102,680 (£38,007 in 1994), and the Minister for the Environment, Mr Howlin, estimated this year's cost at £129,994 (£62,529 in 1994).

The Progressive Democrats' private members' Bill on crime was defeated. It proposed curtailment of the absolute right to silence, new provisions to prevent the abuse of bail, restriction on temporary releases from prison and curbs on the Government's power to remit sentences. FF supported the PDs, but the Bill was defeated by 73 votes to 58.

The VAT yield from newspaper sales in 1995 is expected to be £20 million, compared with £27 million in 1994, the Minister for Finance said in a written reply to Mr Paul McGrath (FG).

The estimated annual running cost of the fleet of State cars is £200,000, the House was told. That did not include the cost of Garda drivers, the Minister for Finance told Mr Ivor Callely (FE) in a written reply.

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Seventeen cars were permanently assigned to the Taoiseach, Tanaiste, Government Ministers, including the Chief Whip and Minister of State to the Government. Other were assigned to the President, former President, former Taoisigh, former Minister for Justice, Director of Public Prosecutions, Chief Justice, Attorney General and Ceann Comhairle. In all there were 40 cars in the fleet.

A motion was passed to approve the Convention on Biological Diversity, arising out of the 1992 Rio de Janeiro UN conference on the environment. The Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht, Mr Higgins, said the convention was a landmark in the area of environment and development "because for the first time a comprehensive rather than a sector approach to the conservation of the Earth's bio diversity and the sustainable use of biological resources is adopted".