David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 2:

In page 11, between lines 24 and 25, to insert the following:“(4) The Office shall, at the request in writing from the Committee of Public Accounts, make available to the Committee of Public Accounts information regarding any costs or fees incurred as a result of the engagement of consultants and advisors.”.

The Minister of State will be aware that I am a member of the Committee of Public Accounts. Far too often we have seen that many public bodies spend far too much money on consultancy fees and consultancy companies. Much of it is outside the purview of even the Committee of Public Accounts and not subject to public scrutiny, especially that of the Dáil. Sometimes we have to really go looking for the information before we actually get it.

I made the point on Committee Stage that Departments have a wealth of experience and talented people, so we are told, and I agree that they have people who are competent and can do various jobs. However, often we farm out and contract out a lot of work that can be done in-house, and it can be very costly. This amendment would insert on page 11 of the Bill, between lines 24 and 25, "The Office shall, at the request in writing from the Committee of Public Accounts, make available to the Committee of Public Accounts information regarding any costs or fees incurred as a result of the engagement of consultants and advisors".

The Minister of State will also be aware that the Committee of Public Accounts published a report on the third level sector in recent days. The use of consultants and consultancy firms was one of the issues raised. This comes up time and again. We are trying to ensure that we have as much democratic oversight of spend of money on consultancy firms. We have seen far too many scandals in the past. As the Minister of State knows, Irish Water is but one example. We want to ensure that the mistakes of the past are not repeated. That is the purpose of the amendment.

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