Seán Ryan (Dublin North, Labour)
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Question 369: To ask the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources the amount of expenditure on consultancy by his Department in 2003, 2004 and 2005; the number of consultants engaged by his Department in those years; and the steps which have been taken to reduce the expenditure on consultancy and the reliance on consultants by his Department in these years and for the future. [41717/06]

Noel Dempsey (Meath, Fianna Fail)
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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 seeks to avail of skills and experiences of other Departments or other parts of the public sector where appropriate. It is my Department's policy to engage consultants only in the following circumstances.

1. Where specialised knowledge or expertise, not available in the Department or in the wider civil or public service, is required for a temporary period;

2. Where a need for objectivity and/or independence is deemed essential;

3. Where a consultancy study is required by an external body e.g. the EU;

4. Where a specialist study/project must be completed within a very short time scale;

5. 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 e.g. if staff would need to be diverted from other essential duties.

The details of expenditure on consultancies as sought by the Deputy are contained in the table.