Aidan Farrelly (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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143. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of retired officials that were re-engaged by her 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 her Department requires consultants to declare conflicts of interest in advance of utilising their services. [31269/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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All consultancy engagements by my Department are conducted in compliance with relevant government procurement frameworks and standards. This includes adherence to regulations concerning conflicts of interest.

Information in relation to consultancy expenditure in my Department is compiled annually in respect of the previous year and published online at www.gov.ie/en/collection/department-of-education-and-skills-expenditure-on-consultancy/ The data in respect of 2025 will be published online in Q1 2026.

6 retired civil servants have provided consultancy services directly to the Department for the years 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024.

In addition to consultancy work, retired civil servants can also be re-engaged by my department for other purposes. Such engagements would include serving as committee/board members/chairpersons or on interview panels. Available details in relation to re-engaged civil servants for such services are provided annually as part of the appropriation account returns and can be viewed at

The table below gives the available number and cost of retired civil servants re-engaged by my department as recorded in the Appropriation Accounts: