Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour)
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1638. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the amount of expenditure on consultancy by her Department in each of the years 2015 to 2017; the number of consultants engaged by her Department in those years; the names of the consultancy companies awarded contracts; and the steps that have been taken to reduce the expenditure on consultancy and the reliance on consultants by her Department in these years and for the future. [15198/18]

Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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Expenditure on consultancy from the administrative budget of my Department was €33,937 in 2015 and €2,514 in 2016 with no such expenditure in 2017.

The consultancies commissioned for the period in question are set out in the following table.

Contracts for the provision of services are not included in this Table. I would also point out that my Department also commissions engineering, environmental and other experts from time to time to provide technical reports or activities on specific issues, as required. While the providers of these services are consultant engineers, environmental consultants etc. 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. Value for money is always a key consideration of the Department when engaging consultants.