Mr. Ray O'Leary:

In my experience, such work can be usefully commissioned externally in two circumstances. One is where there is a particular level of technical or research expertise that it would not be in the taxpayers' interest to have permanently on the books of a particular authority but that is needed for a particular task while the other is where a particular task needs to be done quickly and a concentrated investment of human resources is required that, again, would not be justified as a permanent fixture. I am sure members of this committee would be the first to criticise us if people were sitting around twiddling their thumbs for nine months of the year doing a three-month report. If I might make a slightly personal comment, when I worked in the tourism sector, I took great personal pride in the fact that we managed to produce a tourism policy report in respect of which the only expenditure was on tea and coffee at the regional consultations. I made sure we did not spend a penny on a consultant. I always feel that this was a personal achievement that I try to bring to bear as much as I can in my job. I cannot speak for the entire public sector but we bear in mind that there are always better things to use our money on than our own work.