Billy Timmins (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 81: To ask the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources the extent to which he or his Department or subsidiary agencies rely on services offered by consultants; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6647/06]

Noel Dempsey (Meath, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

My Department is particularly mindful of the value for money imperative and the need to develop and deploy in-house skills as far as possible to minimise the requirement for consultancies. The Department also seeks to avail of skills and experiences of other Departments or other parts of the public sector where appropriate.

My Department's policy is to engage consultants or commission reports only in the following circumstances: where specialised knowledge or expertise not available in the Department or in the wider Civil or public service is required for a temporary period; where a need for objectivity and-or independence is deemed essential; where a consultancy study is required by an external body, for example, the EU; where a specialist study-project must be completed within a very short time scale; where the specialised knowledge or expertise may be available within the Department but an in-house solution would involve a prohibitive opportunity cost and-or would be impractical, for example, if staff would need to be diverted from other essential duties. The question of agencies' use of consultants is an operational matter which is outside my function.