Rose Conway Walsh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is, but Mr. Watt repeated his view many times in terms of potential asset stripping and how bad this is for the State but the Government went ahead and did not take any of his advice. It continued along its own pathway. This will not be the last time Mr. Watt will be quoted. In years to come, in terms of us examining the value for money, this is atrocious. It is important to put on the record the Government's dismissal of Mr. Watt's advice around the broadband project.

On the consultancy fees, in his opening statement Mr. Watt stated that the Civil Service carries out a broad range of functions from developing policy to delivering front-line public services. I want to focus on the Civil Service developing of policy. Does Mr. Watt believe that the Civil Service is adequately resourced and skilled to develop policy options for Departments and the Government? In a letter to the joint committee on finance on 18 July this year it was confirmed by the office of the Minister for Finance and for Public Expenditure and Reform that the Government paid in excess of €25 million in consultancy fees for the national broadband plan. That included, for example, the ownership option papers that Mr. Watt spoke about of PwC and KPMG. Through parliamentary questions in May, we found that between 2011 and 2018, all Departments excluding the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection, spent €82.5 million on consultancy fees from the big four consultancy firms - PwC, KPMG, Deloitte and EY. Not only does that raise concerns about the ability of the Civil Service to carry out its own functions, it also raises questions about the influence these consultancy firms have over public policy and the direction of taxpayers' money and State resources. Are private firms dictating public policy?