David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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657. To ask the Minister for Health the amount of public funding spent by his Department, the HSE and all other public healthcare providers on external consultancy work from 2017 to date by purchaser, in tabular form. [61713/21]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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The Department's total expenditure in the A7 subhead consultancy for the years requested since 2017 is as per the tables below. It is the policy in my Department only to engage the services of external consultants where highly specialised skills are not available within the Department and, in particular, when such an approach is felt to be more appropriate and cost-effective.

The attached tables outline the total amount spent on external consultants from 2017 to date. While some contacts are negotiated on the basis of a daily and hourly rate, others are paid a fee on the basis of reaching a number of milestones during the process and in some case producing a report.

I have asked the HSE to respond directly with their report.