Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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203. To ask the Minister for Finance the total spend on consulting services and on business-as-usual outsourcing, as differentiated under the Code of Practice for the Governance of State Bodies 2016, for each commercial public body under the aegis of his Department for 2022. [30259/23]

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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The Code of Practice for the Governance of State Bodies 2016, Business and Financial Reporting Requirements provides that “State bodies should disclose details of expenditure on external consultancy/adviser fees in their annual report and/or financial statements for each accounting year for each entity”.

The Code states that for the purpose of disclosure in financial statements/annual report, ‘consultancy fees’ means fees paid to external parties providing advisory services of any nature. The 2017 Guide to the Implications for the Annual Financial Statements and the Annual Reportdefines consultancy as "where a person, organization or group thereof is engaged to provide intellectual or knowledge-based services (e.g. expert analysis and advice) through delivering reports, studies, assessments, recommendations, proposals, etc. that contribute to decision- or policy-making in a contracting authority". The engagement should be for a limited time period to carry out a specific finite task or set of tasks that involve expert skills or capabilities that would not normally be expected to reside within the contracting authority.

The Guide provides further clarity on the requirement to disclose consultancy costs and it is suggested that fees paid to external service providers should be categorised as Legal, Financial, PR/Marketing, HR and Pensions, Business Improvement and Other.

As set out on page 27 of the Guide to the Implications for the Annual Financial Statements and the Annual Report, consultancy costs include the cost of external advice to management and exclude outsourced ‘business as usual’ functions which do not fit within the definition of consultancy as outlined above.

The table below provides total spend in 2022 on consulting services and on ‘business-as-usual’ outsourcing, as provided by the commercial State bodies under the aegis of my Department.

Home Building Finance Ireland appoints Legal, Monitoring Surveyor and Valuation firms as part of the due diligence process on each of its loan transactions, with the costs being recovered from the relevant borrower. These costs have been excluded from the figures below.

Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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204. To ask the Minister for Finance further to Parliamentary Questions Nos. 195 of 20 April and 381 of 13 June 2023, if he will explain the discrepancy in the figure provided for the CBI spend on consultant services in 2022; if he will provide details of the companies and purpose of the contracts with the CBI; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30278/23]

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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It was not possible for the Central Bank to provide the information sought in the time available and, therefore, I will make arrangements to provide the information to the Deputy in line with Standing Orders.

Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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205. To ask the Minister for Finance further to Parliamentary Questions Nos. 195 of 20 April and 381 of 13 June 2023, if he will explain the discrepancy in the figure provided for the NTMA spend on consultant services in 2022; if he will provide details on the companies and purpose of the contracts with the NTMA; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30279/23]

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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The two Parliamentary Questions referred to differed in scope regarding the type of services and the financial information requested in respect of such services. Accordingly, the data provided in the two responses is not directly comparable.

Parliamentary Question No. 381 of 13 June 2023, PQ reference 27962/23, sought details in respect of the total spend on consultancy services and on ‘business-as-usual’ functions, as required by the Code of Practice for the Governance of State Bodies 2016, for 2022.

In addition, under the NTMA element the published response for Parliamentary Question No. 381 of 13 June 2023 omitted in error information related to the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund. The full table of information related to the NTMA that should have formed part of the original PQ response is included now below.

Parliamentary Question No. 195 of 20 April 2023, PQ reference 18731/23, sought details of the services of consultants enlistedin 2022 and the purpose and valueof those contracts.

The NTMA has advised me that their response to that Question contained details of contracts signed by the NTMA in 2022with consultants that provided expert advice across all five of the NTMA’s statutory mandates (Funding & Debt Management, Ireland Strategic Investment Fund, National Development Finance Agency, New Economy & Recovery Agency, State Claims Agency) and the associated corporate functions. Certain contracts entered into by the State Claims Agency in the performance of its statutory mandate in relation to claims management (such as medical and non-medical expert witness services and Barrister services) were not included in this response on the basis that they were not considered to be "consultants" within the meaning of the PQ.

The amounts specified were the estimated total value of the relevant contracts over their lifetime, except where otherwise specified.”

Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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206. To ask the Minister for Finance the breakdown of the business as usual outsourcing cost of the Central Bank of Ireland, including companies and purpose of contract, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30280/23]

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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It was not possible for the Central Bank to provide the information sought in the time available and, therefore, I will make arrangements to provide the information to the Deputy in line with Standing Orders.