Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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390. To ask the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the external consultant reports commissioned by her Department since March 2011 per annum, in tabular form; the costs per report; the company involved; the title of the report; and the publication date. [39480/16]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The Department of Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs was established under that title on 7 July 2016. It has responsibility for all the matters that previously came within the remit of the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, which was itself established on 2 June 2011, and in addition is also responsible for certain functions transferred from the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government and from the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources. Accordingly, the information requested by the Deputy is set out in the table below and provided in respect of the period from 2 June 2011.

Accordingly, the details requested by the Deputy in respect of the eleven reports commissioned since June 2011 are set out below. Contracts for the provision of services are not included.

For completeness, I wish to bring to the Deputy's attention that the University of Birmingham was commissioned in 2010 by the then Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, prior to the establishment of my Department, to undertake a review relating to peatlands. The resulting report, "Review of Archaeological Survey and Mitigation Policy relating to Bord na Móna Peatlands" was published in June 2013 and the associated costs of €34,337 were met by my Department.

I would also point out that my Department also commissions engineering or environmental experts from time to time to provide technical reports on specific issues, as required. While the providers of these services are consultant engineers, environmental consultants or may describe themselves in other such terms, their work is not classified as consultancy services and is not funded from my Department's Administrative Budget.