Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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123. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the expenditure by his department by heading (details supplied) in each of the years since June 1997 to January 2011, in tabular form; and the miscellaneous expenditure not relating to set department budgets pertaining to the headings. [52220/17]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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All of the details requested are not readily available within my Department and it would involve a very significant amount of administrative time to identify, retrieve from storage, and examine all relevant files in order to compile the information in question.

The FMS Financial Management System used by the Department did not become fully operational until 2004 and does not format the relevant details into the categories as requested by the Deputy. However, I attach a listing for the years 1997 to 2010 as compiled in response to previous parliamentary questions tabled previously. This listing includes expenditure on consultancies and may include consultancies on PR, communications and reports commissioned during the period indicating the costs involved.  

In relation to advertising, my Department incurs expenditure in connection with a wide range of educational programmes and schemes including, staff appointments in the education sector; invitations to attend local hearings; invitations to forward submissions on education-related schemes/projects; invitations to tender for school building projects. Attached is a listing of expenditure compiled from the FMS for 2004-2010.

Information on Consultants, Experts and Advisors engaged by the Department of Education and Skills (formerly the Department of Education and Science) during the years 1997 to 2010, inclusive, is contained in the following links.

Table 1

Table 2