Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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It is a nice segue that we are talking about the reliance on external advice. If I understood Mr. Griffin correctly, he is talking about 25 consultants assigned to the roll-out of the national broadband plan. I submitted a parliamentary question for written answer on 19 January of this year asking how much the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications was spending on external consultancy services. The figure I got back was €14.3 million, of which €10.1 million, approximately, was being spent on external services for this very project.

If I break that down further - and the reply is a matter of public record - Analysys Mason received €3.9 million, EY business advisory services received €5.3 million and William Fry legal advisory services received €846,000. That adds up to approximately €10.1 million. Is it possible to give a further breakdown of the spend between the three entities I have just mentioned?

The reason I ask the question is that I perceive that in latter years Government Departments have been hollowed out and there is an increased dependency on external advice. None of us are against the idea of external advice. It needs to be procured if and when a certain skill set or a specific project needs to be delivered. That is understood. However, €10.1 million seems to me to be an extraordinary figure.

What were EY's business advisory services, for example? The consultancy, the PQ reply states, is for financial and commercial advisory services, but it amounts to €5.3 million, which is not an insignificant amount of money. Is it possible to provide the committee with a further breakdown of that cost in terms of, to use the vernacular phrase, billable hours? What is the Department getting for €5.3 million? What is it getting from Analysys Mason for €3.9 million and what is it getting from William Fry for €846,000 so far? That is only for 2021. It would be very useful if this committee had a further understanding of just how much money is being spent on consultancy services, not only for the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications - officials from that Department are here today - but for every Department of State, for that matter.