Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

It is a question. It is absolutely a question and I want the Taoiseach to answer it. What is behind that sum of €44 million? When one considers the level of scrutiny of other areas of public expenditure, including how much public servants are paid, their hourly rates, what the Taoiseach's salary is, what my salary is, what our expenses are and so forth, then the same level of detail should be provided, as a matter of course, on the remuneration for consultants who are paid out of the public purse. No issue of commercial sensitivity can insulate people who are in receipt of large amounts of public money from the requirement to provide detailed information as to their hourly rates, how many people they are employing and so forth. When one looks at the scale of the figures, one must conclude that they are being paid massive amounts of money.

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