Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Question 308: To ask the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism the expenditure by his Department on consultants to date in 2008; and if he will compare this to the expenditure on consultants for each of the past five years. [19493/08]

Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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My Department, including the National Archives, incurred the following expenditure on consultancy over the years in question.

My Department observes the Department of Finance Guidelines for Engagement of Consultants in the Civil Service. The expenditure on consultancy has been reduced year-on-year since 2004. This is a result of my Department's efforts to ensure that consultants are only employed in circumstances where specialised knowledge or expertise, which is not available in the Department or elsewhere in the public service, is required for a temporary period or a specialist study/project must be completed within a very short time scale.