Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent)
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215. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the expenditure details for all consultancy or audit services provided to his Department by a company (details supplied) from 2015 to 2018 and to date in 2019; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7557/19]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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My Department administers a very diverse, complex and technical brief across critical and strategic sectors of the Irish economy. While it has a total complement of around 396 full time equivalent staff of whom a number are technical personnel, the technical, commercial, legal complexity and evolving nature of sectors with which the Department deals requires access to external professional expertise to assist in discharging its functions. In procuring these specialised services, my Department always seeks to ensure value for money and that these services contribute to project delivery and informed, robust and evidence based policy making.

Details of expenditure for consultancy services provided to my Department by the company in question in each year from 2015 to date in 2019 are set out in the table below. The bulk of the studies are technical and specialist in nature and were necessary to address specific issues as they arose and enable the Department to discharge its policy and project responsibilities in the areas concerned.