Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

This related to two-year contracts for Analysys Mason, EY and William Fry.

I am presuming that the two-year extension has actually been granted. It says that a contract extension is available so I am presuming those contracts have been extended. I know the last two years have not been normal but can we clarify that with them? Some of the response is on foot of questions that I and others put in relation to the reliance on outside expertise for a contract that has a relatively long duration and whether in-post positions would be a more cost effective way of doing it, not to mention the fact that the expertise would be in-house.

The last page does give us some of the kind of granular information we sought. The second last paragraph tells us that with funding for approximately 20 additional staff approved in budget 2022, the Department's core team has expanded over the past year, with seven posts filled in 2021 and 14 posts in the process of being filled. It is useful to get that information but it would also be useful to know if the Department is applying for additional posts and not getting them and whether it has a framework for how many it will ultimately need. That would be useful information to have because without it, we have no real reference point.