Seán Ryan (Dublin North, Labour)
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Question 392: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment 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. [41721/06]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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The table supplies the information requested by the Deputy in relation to the amount of expenditure by my Department on consultancy in 2003, 2004 and 2005 and the number of consultants engaged by the Department in those years. My Department operates to detailed guidelines when commissioning outside expertise from our consultancy or research budgets. In that regard, my Department interprets Consultancy as relating mainly to the provision of advice and Research as relating to the compilation of information or data.

The guidelines state, inter alia, that "the requirements for external consultancies and/or research projects should arise only where appropriate skills, knowledge or expertise are not available within the Department, where a particular need arises that cannot be addressed within the resources available, and/or where expertise available in other Government Departments and Offices, e.g. obtaining legal advice from the Chief State Solicitors Office in preference to engaging external consultants, cannot be used". Furthermore, in order to maximise the effectiveness of the consultancy and research budgets, all proposals for funding must present a strong business case to my Department's Management Board for consideration and approval.

In evaluating each business case my Department examines: whether the project is designed to tackle a problem of sufficient importance to the Department relative to the costs, both in terms of financial and staff resources involved; and whether the business case has been properly identified, prepared and is convincing, and the links to the Department's Strategy Statement. The Guidelines also set out the specific information required in each application for funding which includes an evaluation of possibilities other than engaging external consultants to carry out the project.