Written answers
Wednesday, 13 December 2006
Department of Foreign Affairs
Consultancy Contracts
10:00 pm
Jim O'Keeffe (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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Question 226: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs the amount spent on consultants in each year from 1997 to 2005 and to date in 2006. [43227/06]
Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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The information requested by the Deputy is set out in the following tables in respect of the two Votes for which this Department is responsible: Vote 28 (Foreign Affairs) and Vote 29 (International Cooperation).
| Vote 28 | |
| Year | Amount |
| €m | |
| 1997 | 0.06 |
| 1998 | 0.08 |
| 1999 | 0.10 |
| 2000 | 0.05 |
| 2001 | 0.06 |
| 2002 | 0.60 |
| 2003 | 0.72 |
| 2004 | 0.47 |
| 2005 | 0.57 |
| 2006 (to date) | 0.28 |
| Vote 29 | |
| Year | Amount |
| (€m) | |
| 1997 | 1.54 |
| 1998 | 1.52 |
| 1999 | 1.47 |
| 2000 | 2.00 |
| 2001 | 3.10 |
| 2002 | 3.00 |
| 2003 | 2.60 |
| 2004 | 2.76 |
| 2005 | 2.60 |
| 2006 (to date) | 2.38 |
Under Vote 28, the bulk of the expenditure on consultancies in recent years relates to the upgrading of the Department's information technology infrastructure and to the development of an Automated Passport System (APS).
Under Vote 29, the consultancies undertaken by the Department's Development Cooperation Division cover a wide range of sectors including HIV/AIDS, health, education, governance and rural development. A high proportion of them concern the monitoring, review and evaluation of development programmes and projects commissioned at HQ. Given the scale of Ireland's development aid programme, the related consultancy expenditure is both prudent and proportionate.
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