Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We have heard an opening statement and we have pages of stuff the Department has released under freedom of information. I have 21 more pages of questions and answers about Siteserv and I probably have a total of 60 or 70 pages about Siteserv in my folder this morning courtesy of the Department. I am asking a simple question. There were calls for an independent commission of inquiry into what happened with Siteserv. A decision was made to appoint KPMG so that it could get the job done by the end of August, but the Department does not know the figure for costs and does not even have the daily rates being charged. Mr. Moran, that is a bad day for the Department. We look at the Department as the custodians of the national finances, but it has appointed consultants to do work willy-nilly, without an agreed fee or a ceiling to the fee. I am a former employee of KPMG and it is a good organisation. I know the rates they charge. They could easily have said, for example, that if the job took a month it would cost €600,000 or if it took two months or more it could be a different figure. They must have given the Department some indication. Can the witnesses tell me about the discussions it held with KPMG about the total fees for this project?