Marc Ó Cathasaigh (Waterford, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

It is worrying from a value-for-money perspective when I look at the staffing cost. My other issue relating to the outsourcing of staffing is that I, as a member of this committee and a Member of the Oireachtas, do not have a great line of sight in terms of value for money. The Department surely has a role in this. I do not have a good line of sight in terms of the competencies being employed into it and we are not getting that retention within the knowledge base. I will talk about staffing in local authorities as well. I much prefer the idea of increasing our capacity as a State and then keeping that knowledge in-house. When we outsource this, I do not know who is doing the design work or whatever else in these consultancy firms and it contributes nothing to the knowledge base in terms of what we are trying to build.