Lucinda Creighton (Dublin South East, Fine Gael)
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Question 119: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs the number of external reports and reviews commissioned by State agencies and boards under his remit in 2008, 2009 and to date in 2010; if he will name each report and review; the spending on external reports and reviews in each of those years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43508/10]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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There are no state agencies operating under the responsibility of my Department. There are currently four boards which operate under the aegis of my Department: the Development Education Advisory Committee; the Government Emigrant Services Advisory Committee; the Fulbright Commission (The Board of the Ireland – United States Commission for Educational Exchange) and the Irish Aid Expert Advisory Group.

The Advisory Board for Ireland Aid operated until 2008, when its term of appointment came to an end. One of its primary functions was to commission academic research on issues relevant to the Government's official development cooperation programme. Some work commissioned from the Institute of International Integration Studies (IIIS) on Policy Coherence for Development was ongoing at the time the Advisory Board ended its operations in 2008. This was subsumed into the work of my Department. There were three pieces of work involved: a scoping research on key policy coherence issues; a study on policy coherence on agriculture and development; and a policy indicators project. These projects involved costs of €364,000 in 2008 and €10,655 in 2009. Two of the projects are completed and the policy indicators project will be completed shortly.

The Development Education Advisory Committee commissioned a research study, Mapping the Past, Charting the Future: A Review and Analysis of the Irish Government's Engagement with Development Education in Ireland, in early 2010. The study is being conducted by Dr. Matthias Fiedler, Irish Development Education Association (IDEA), Dr. Audrey Bryan, St. Patrick's College of Education, Ms Melíosa Bracken, MSc, School of Education, UCD, and Dr. Vanessa Andreotti, School of Maori, Social and Cultural Studies, University of Canterbury, New Zealand, and will be completed before the end of 2010. It will be formally considered by the committee at its next meeting in January 2011 and final costs will be in the region of €25,000. It is envisaged that the report will be made public in early 2011.

The Ireland-United States Commission for Educational Exchange (known as the Fulbright Commission) commissioned consultants in 2009 to review the board's awards and activities, organisation and strategic direction. The fee for this consultancy was €5,853.

Question No. 120 answered with Question No. 31.