Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)
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Question 92: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the additional consultancy services that his Department proposes to utilise in 2006; the reason an increase of 66 per cent for consultancy fees has been provided in the estimates; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18211/06]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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The A07 Consultancy subhead is available for use by any Section of my Department which needs to commission skills, knowledge or expertise not available within the Department in order to help them meet their business goals.

Forecasting the amount required for general consultancy for any year is an inexact science, given how difficult it is to forecast the level of demand, as requirements are not always known a full year or more in advance. That said, two specific issues lead to my Department seeking a significant level of increase for 2006 over last year's outturn. Firstly, when the Estimate was being prepared, my Department identified a higher than normal number of project applications for the following year (2006) than was the case in 2005. Secondly, an extra €100,000 was provided for 2006 to cater for additional consultancy work that might arise as a result of the requirement to undertake Regulatory Impact Analyses (RIA) on proposed new legislation.

To date, my Department has approved expenditure from the A07 subhead of our Vote in respect of seven consultancy projects to a maximum value of €409,031. This leaves a balance of €217,969 available for projects arising in the second half of the year.