Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I do not have that figure with me and the Deputy should table a question on the matter. To get a figure would mean trawling across all Departments and well beyond my own Department of responsibility. If the Deputy table a question, I will see what we can do to get that figure.

There was a tendency, which may sometimes have been a default position, to have consultants do work rather than line Departments, but in so far as it is practicable, we should have line Departments do the work. Often when complicated work is being done, we may need particular expertise that does not exist in the public service and we have to buy it in. I am trying to have an economics evaluation service within the public service, and we recruited last year a range of young economic graduates trained in my Department who will be allocated across line Departments to provide expertise. There are other skill sets required in the public service that should be recruited and embedded on a permanent basis and I hope, over time, that will mitigate the need to hire consultants. There will always be some issues so we should consider matters case by case. Where there is a robust business case to engage consultants, we will continue to hire them.

See this speech in context