Aidan Farrelly (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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391. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of retired officials that were re-engaged by his Department on a consultancy basis in the past four years and to date in 2025; the reason for engaging them; the costs incurred in respect of their engagement; and if his Department requires consultants to declare conflicts of interest in advance of utilising their services. [31273/25]

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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The guidelines for consultancy which the Department of Further and Higher Education Research Innovation and Science complies with defines 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". On this basis, I would like to advise the Deputy that from my Departments establishment to date, no retired officials have been re-engaged on a consultancy basis.