Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Senator Bradford made a point on a particular provision but it is a standard provision. It is common across all Acts when we are setting up State boards or new agencies. It gives them the power to appoint consultants when they need advice. Senator Eamonn Coghlan is correct in that Abbotstown will be an example in future. It is developing at such a fast pace. I made a request in this House last week to Senators and I hope they will take it up. They should see what is actually happening there and what is proposed for the future. It is worth going to see. My Department will engage closely with the new body. There will be Government guidelines on consultants.

Senator Darragh O'Brien made a valid point. I can give two figures on what was spent on consultants in 2014. The Irish Sports Council spent €357,383 and the National Sports Campus Development Authority spent €286,405. That comes to almost €600,000 of State money spent on consultants. As someone who came through the local authorities to the Dáil, one thing I hate to see is large amounts of money being spent on consultants. I used to see that in Leader programmes. People used to come to me looking to do a project. The first thing they wanted was a feasibility study. In some cases, these are needed but some projects were only small and it turned out that more money was being spent on consultants and feasibility studies than on the actual projects.

This is common across all State agencies and our Department will have guidelines. Each year officials will sit down with officials from the new body for discussions and the priorities will be outlined. If there is an emergency or a problem, it can be addressed. Senator Eamonn Coghlan referred to the new Abbotstown campus. He knows all about high-performance sports. Sometimes we need to get consultants in or advice has to be sought on issues like that.