Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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206. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation if he will provide the annual saving to the Exchequer from a 20% reduction in all professional fees for his Department, including but not limited to legal, consultancy, IT-related, advisory, advertising and accountancy; and the company name and amount invoiced between 1 June 2013 and 31 May 2014. [30069/14]

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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207. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation if he will provide in tabular form a list of all professional fees for his Department, including but not limited to legal, consultancy, IT-related, advisory, advertising and accountancy; and the company name and amount invoiced between 1 June 2013 and 31 May 2014. [30084/14]

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 206 and 207 together.

The following table details all of the Department’s expenditure on Consultancy & Professional Services for the period 1 June 2013 and 31 May 2014. This encompasses payments in respect of consultancy, IT related, advisory, advertising and accountancy services. In respect of the figures below it is worth noting that the figures include both the Department and its Offices which provide specific enterprise support functions and services. By way of example, the CRO and the ODCE account for 49% of the total payments outlined below. The CRO alone accounts for 37% of the total which relates to the maintenance and upkeep of a digital database of all registered companies in the State (Enterprise Registry Solutions Ltd).

Consultancy is based on the definition as prescribed by the Department of Finance, where “a person, organization or group is engaged to provide intellectual or knowledge-based services (e.g. expert analysis and advice) through delivering reports, studies, assessments, recommendations, proposals, etc. that contribute to decision or policy-making in a contracting authority. The engagement should be for a limited time period to carry out a specific finite task or set of tasks that involve expert skills or capabilities that would not normally be expected to reside within the contracting authority.”

Professional services are regarded as “any service where professional service withholding tax has been applied” (where the company is based outside Ireland 4^thSchedule applies instead of PSWT)

The provision of legal advice and legal services are captured within separate tables.

Professional fees incurred 1^stJune 2013 to 31 December 2013

Legal fees incurred 1^stJune 2013 to 31^stDecember 2013

The total amount of fees for 1 June 2013 to 31 December 2013 is €1,685,615.73. 20% of this amount is €337,123.15.

Professional fees incurred 1st January 2014 to 31^stMay 2014

Legal fees incurred 1st January 2014 to 31^stMay 2014

The total amount of fees for 1 January 2014 to 31 May 2014 is €1,027,465.67. Some 20% of this amount is €205,493.13.