Alex White (Dublin South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

We should only bring in consultants to work on public projects when we do not have the necessary skills within the Civil Service. I do not travel much but I travel a little and I have spoken to Ministers in other countries about broadband. No matter what a person's view is, broadband is a major infrastructural project. That project is being managed within my Department by a relatively small group of highly-motivated and professional people under the leadership of Ms Katherine Licken, the assistant secretary in charge. These people in my Department plug away, day in and day out, working on this exciting and very important project for the Irish people. Yes, we must have legal consultancy, economic consultancy, technical consultancy and so on but we keep it to the minimum that is required. We ensure that we can put together all of the pieces to ensure that the project is delivered for the Irish people. The project is led and managed by civil servants who are doing a terrific job. I witness their dedication day in, day out and some of them are here with me today.

I wish to comment further on consultants. Sometimes there are projects that are relatively short lived and that require certain skills. I might sound a little harsh when I say that they are not skills that will be required after the project has been completed. In other words, the project requires specific skills and once it is completed, there is no longer a need for the skills. There is a case for bringing in people, either consultants or otherwise, for that kind of work but demand should be kept to a minimum. It is policy and our approach to keep the necessity for such people to a minimum. As far as possible, we confine it to where the appropriate skillset is unavailable.

There is no question of outside consultants taking control of public projects. It is not happening and could not be countenanced. For example, Eircode has a project board and civil servants, including senior ones, are closely involved with it. There is not even a remote risk of the scope of a project being expanded in the interests of an outside body-----