Michael Finucane (Fine Gael)

I support the amendment because I recall at the Committee of Public Accounts there was concern in regard to the number of consultants employed. Often there was resentment within the Civil Service in regard to consultants being deployed from outside as it was considered that there was the necessary expertise to carry out whatever consultancy was required. In the financially straitened circumstances about which the Government and the pundits continue to remind us, the whole area of the appointment of consultants should be looked at. It should be the last decision of any chief executive of any organisation to deploy consultants. Certainly, there has been excessive use of consultants in recent years.