Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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413. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine to provide a breakdown of the amount expended by his Department on consultancies in 2023 and to date in 2024; the company engaged; and the nature of the work conducted by the consultancy on his Department’s behalf, in tabular form. [40207/24]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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I wish to inform the Deputy that the information requested, in relation to the amount expended by my Department on consultancies in 2023, and to date in 2024, is set out in the attached table.

This Department seeks to minimise the use of consultants and only engages consultancy firms 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.