Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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41. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of external contracts for consultancy currently operating in his Department; and the overall cost of the contracts. [33524/20]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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My Department seeks to minimise the use of consultants and only engages consultancy companies when particular additional expertise is required for delivery of the services which support the business processes of the Department. 

Such services are used in areas where the Department does not have the necessary expertise or internal capacity to deliver the services and where it would not make practical, operational or economic sense to build up this capability within the Department. 

A number of these engagements are necessary to satisfy auditing and EU regulatory requirements and where independent evaluation of projects is required. All contracts are negotiated with a view to achieving best value for money and keeping expenditure to a minimum.

There are currently 51 external contracts for consultancy operating in my Department at a total cost of €8,530,552. Several of these are multi-year contracts where the cost of the contract is spread out over a number of years.