Paul Gogarty (Dublin Mid West, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I will continue with the consultancy issue seeing as we are on that thread. The Arts Council had a botched IT project that involved consultants and wasted at least €5.3 million. Anecdotally, we have a lot of examples where public sector companies spend a lot of money on consultants and it is usually not very efficient - it is usually a case of “How long is a piece of string?”

In the context of subsidising specified sectors with a specified target, there is always the risk that consultants have a little surcharge and tell you what you might already be able to get if you did the research properly. There might be specific niche areas where consultants may be required. Why do the IDA and Enterprise Ireland not have a one-stop shop where people can get that type of consultancy knowledge? This would be for SMEs, for example. Why fund outside consultants to which the Department would pay a premium when it could, given the number of companies under the Department's remit, employ experts who could focus on whether additional consultancy services are required and cover much of that advice? That is my first question.