Michael Colreavy (Sligo-North Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I will wander back to part one of the meeting, if the Chairman does not mind, although the issue arises in part two. There has been much expenditure on management and information technology consultancy and so forth across all headings and all Departments. I am concerned about it. If we looked at the New Zealand model of outcome evaluation, the issue I want to raise would not have feet. We must bear that in mind.

It appears that Departments are overly dependent on management consultants. Eircode is an example. I know that will go before the Committee of Public Accounts and that is the relevant body. I, and others on this committee, have raised several concerns on different occasions that management consultants had taken control of that project. I see that management consultants are now involved with the continuing development of that project. I described this phenomenon as the equivalent of a hostage beginning to empathise with hostage-takers.

What system or process is used to evaluate the Eircode project and others similar to it? What system and process is used to monitor changes and expansion of those projects that are instigated by management consultants? Without casting aspersions on any particular firm, it benefits management consultants if they can expand the scope of a project in which they will have a continuing involvement.

We have excellent public servants who are educated and skilled people. Why not train them? If necessary, they could work as part of a project team with management consultants. Such an initiative would wean us off our dependance on management consultants. I am not just referring to the areas for which the Minister is responsible. The initiative should be applied on a government-wide basis and I ask him to comment. I am sorry for straying back to the first part of our discussion.