Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 108: To ask the Minister for Finance the number of occasions on which he has sought advice from public relations consultancy firms or individuals, media advisers or other non-established civil servants in the past three years; if such advisers are retained on a permanent or [i]per diem[/i] basis or otherwise; if such persons have had previous experience with Government Departments or subsidiary bodies; the rate and basis of remuneration in each case; the departmental headings from which payments were made; the extent to which payments were made under the heading miscellaneous; if reference will be made to same in the case of each Minister of State in his Department; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3777/06]

Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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I take it that the Deputy is asking about arrangements in place in the years 2003 to 2005 between my Department, including my predecessor and myself, and PR consultancy firms and individuals, and media advisers. I also take it that his reference to "other non-established civil servants" relates to ministerial advisers employed as non-established civil servants and does not include other non-established civil servants whose functions, generally, are not related to the provision of advice in, for example, evaluators under the national development plan, NDP, and community support framework, CSF, or new entrants to the Civil Service serving the customary probationary period prior to becoming established.

On that basis, the details sought are as follows: my Department did not have contracts with media advisers or with non-established civil servants as ministerial advisers in the period. I would add that the staff in my Department's press and information office are all established civil servants.

The table below sets out, for all the contracts my Department had in the period from 1 January 2003 to 31 December 2005 with public relations consultancy firms, the year in which the contract was awarded, the year in which the contract was or will be completed, whether the firm had pervious experience with a Government Department or subsidiary body, the basis of remuneration for the contract, the amount of the remuneration and the subhead of Vote 6, Office of the Minister for Finance, from which the remuneration was paid. In no case was a miscellaneous subhead used.

Although the Office of Public Works is not funded directly or indirectly by my Department, my Department has asked that office to communicate to the Deputy any relevant information in relation to his question.