Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Question 337: To ask the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism the expenditure by his Department on consultants for each of the past six calendar years, including to date in 2008; the breakdown of these figures in order to show the amount and proportion of expenditure on consultants which relates to expenditure on public relations, marketing or advertising consultants; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28378/08]

Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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The information requested by the Deputy since the establishment of the Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism in June 2002 is set out in the table below:

The expenditure provided for 2007 includes consultancy and PR costs for Culture Ireland and the total expenditure for 2008 under the PR heading is for that body only.

The expenditure outlined in the table includes costs in respect of the National Museum of Ireland and the National Library of Ireland up to May 2005, at which time they became autonomous statutory bodies under the National Cultural Institutions Act, 1997. Any expenditure since that date by these bodies falls within their own budgets and is a matter for the bodies themselves.

This Department observes the Department of Finance Guidelines for Engagement of Consultants in the Civil Service. Consultants are only employed by the Department 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.