Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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143. To ask the Minister for Finance the amount expended by the Pensions Ombudsman and Financial Services Ombudsman on external consultants in the 2014-2016 period, by year, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40859/16]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I would firstly point out that the Pensions Ombudsman comes under the aegis of the colleague the Minister for Social Protection.

In relation to the Financial Services Ombudsman, the Ombudsman is independent in the performance of his statutory functions.  The Financial Services Ombudsman has informed me that the information requested by the Deputy is as follows:-

The table outlines the amount expended by the Financial Services Ombudsman's Bureau on external consultants for the years 2014-2016.  The 2016 figures are to the end of November only, and are unaudited.

Notes to table:

* 2016 figures are to end November only

** These costs were combined and reported as Contractor costs in the 2014 and 2015 Annual Reports

*** Procurement costs were categorised under legal fees in 2015 Annual Report.They did not arise in 2014

**** The 2015 figure shown in the annual report was an accrued amount based on the cost in previous years.  The actual cost of the audit came in €300 less than estimated.

The total figure of €169,612 for Contractor expenditure in the 2015 Annual Report contained expenditure of €18,640 which related to other services, such as translation and printing services.

Details of the Administrative Costs of the Financial Services Ombudsmans Bureau is available on the Financial Services Ombudsman's website at .