Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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6. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the details of each time his Department, or public bodies under the aegis of his Department, enlisted the services of consultants in 2023 and 2024; the purpose, value and duration of each contract in relation to public bodies under the aegis of his Department, including where consulting contracts are classified under ‘business-as-usual outsourcing’ for annual reporting; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3783/25]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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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 schedule at the link below. As a number of contracts are multi-annual, their expenditure in each year of 2023 and 2024 are listed separately in the schedule.

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.

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). The Department participates fully in ongoing 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.

">Dept. of Foreign Affairs Consultancy Expenditure