Clare Daly (Dublin North, Socialist Party)
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128. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the number of engineers and technical staff who have left the flood management section over the past five years and not been replaced; the amount of money paid during that time on reports carried out by external engineers; and the number of those reports that were commissioned to Irish-based engineers and companies. [7347/14]

Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
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The engineering and technical staff numbers employed in the flood management section of the Office of Public Works (OPW) has reduced by 3 over the past five years.

In carrying out its work in the flood risk management area the OPW has always used the services of external engineering consultancy firms to assist in the development and delivery of flood relief schemes and in the ongoing work associated with flood risk assessment and management such as, for example, the CFRAM Programme. Such external consultants would prepare reports as an integral and routine part of the work they are engaged in. The fees paid to the consultants would incorporate the production of any such routine reports.

Outside of the normal, ongoing work, the OPW flood management section commissioned one report of a once off nature during the last five years from external engineers at a cost of €68,611 (excl. VAT). This report was prepared by a UK based company with a significant operational presence in Ireland.