Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

First, not all the expertise being sought through consultancy is economic expertise. It is economic, legal and communications expertise in some respects. The amounts of money, in their totality, are not huge in comparison with overall budgets. I have given Deputy Boyd Barrett the explanation previously that the expertise is not available in-house and it is more economic to get it through consultancy than to hire permanent staff. That is the position. Were the Deputy correct and were it cheaper to hire in, of course we would try to do so, but that is not the way it works. If one takes an area like the two big areas of taxation we intend to examine this year, namely, all the reliefs to agriculture and the agrisector, as well as corporate taxation, these are two highly important areas. While the Department has people who are quite knowledgeable about the tax that applies to these areas, it does not have people within it who deal with farm tax or who deal with the tax of multinational companies. In other words, we do not have practitioner experience in-house and no one would expect us to do so. Yet, before one makes far-reaching changes that could have highly serious consequences for the economy, it is important to check the policy here within the Department against the practical experience and expertise outside. In economics now, as it goes up to the doctorate level, it becomes a very refined art and there are areas of expertise in which people are competent but they are not competent in the next area. The Department has economists who are expert on aspects of company law but they might not be experts on anything to do with farm taxation. Similarly, they may have no expertise in corporate tax. They will have the kind of expertise that generalists have but will not have expert knowledge. What is needed, many times, is expert knowledge and that is what we seek and is what we must bring in.

In respect of those two areas, in particular on the tax side, there is an increase provided for here and it reflects the ongoing commitment to review all key tax categories on a rolling basis. Key items for the review of 2014 will be the agritax sector and corporation taxes. It is essential that a review of our corporation tax regime is conducted to ensure that we remain competitive globally, while also preserving and preventing damage to Ireland's reputation. A comprehensive review of agricultural tax policy, to include income tax, capital taxes, VAT, stamp duty and corporation tax, also is planned to evaluate the costs and benefits of reliefs available to the sector. We must have expertise to match the sectoral interests, who also will be giving advice on these matters.

In fairness, I believe Deputy Boyd Barrett has received reasonable answers as to the reason all expertise is not brought in-house. Moreover, he must recall there are caps on civil servants' salaries and they have been reduced significantly in recent years. There have been reductions of between 20% and 25%. The kind of expertise the Department needs on occasion would not come to the first interview with the kind of salaries that are being offered to senior civil servants. They would not cross the door of the place to be interviewed for a full-time position because they get salaries vastly in excess of Civil Service rates in the law firms or accountancy firms in which they work. One then pays for their expertise but thankfully, from an Exchequer point of view, one does not need it for the full year. One needs it for a week or two or less, on occasions.

That is the justification for it.

On the question from Deputy Doherty on the pension levy, I am advised it is the knock-on reductions from the Haddington Road agreement. Following the cuts in salaries, the amount goes down. That has to be allowed for in the Estimate as well.

I will get an answer for the Deputy on the disabled drivers appeal board. I am told that there is a circular flow of money to Rehab. We will get the Deputy all the specific details. We do not have them on file here.