Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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31. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade 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. [40214/24]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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The Department of Foreign Affairs is responsible for two Votes - Vote 27 (International Cooperation) and Vote 28 (Foreign Affairs). Overall expenditure under both Votes for consultancy services engaged by my Department in 2023 and 2024 to date are set out in the table below.

My Department engages external expertise in line with national and EU procurement rules when it is clear the skills are adding value to the wide range of skills already available in the Department and in particular, where independent appraisal and evaluation of policies and projects is necessary.

Such external expertise may involve the provision of expert reports, expert analysis or expert services to the Department. External expertise has informed, and continues to inform, my Department's strategies and policies and the effective delivery of our services to our citizens in a transparent and accountable manner representing value for money.

The policy of the Department is to operate competitive tendering as standard procedure in order to achieve best value for money. Procurement takes place in the context of Directive 2014/24/EU and supported by Procurement Guidelines published by the Office of Government Procurement (OGP). My Department participates fully in on-going initiatives of the Office of Government Procurement (OGP) focusing especially on achieving procurement savings, including the use of shared framework agreements for the provision of different categories of supplies and services.