Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is unacceptable that a Department can spend in excess of €250,000 and not give a full account of it to the Houses of the Oireachtas. This was for a report presented to the Minister. I wonder how many pages were in it. If there were 300 pages, it is something else to get €1,000 per page. It is great work if one can get it.

I am of the mind that there is adequate competency within the Departments of Health, Finance and Public Expenditure and Reform to undertake the work allocated to Goodbody Stockbrokers in this instance. I would regard it as almost indicative of a lack of trust in the competence of the Civil Service, the public servants of which are there to carry out that type of work in the ordinary course of events. The blanket excuse of secrecy about commercial sensitivities to hide the full facts of whatever is involved is not acceptable at any time, but particularly in these times when we are discussing quite considerable sums of money. I urge the Minister to set aside this gag, which is what it is, and allow the full facts to be shared and open to full public scrutiny.

Let there be no mistake about it. The reply that I received to the original question showed that the Department paid more than €967,000 to private consultancy firms in 2011. The figure up to September of this year had already reached €897,000. What will it be by the end of the year? We are heading towards the €1 million figure. These are major sums of money at a time when people are suffering because of other decisions the Minister is taking.

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