Aidan Farrelly (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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179. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the number of retired officials who 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. [31275/25]

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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From time to time my Department engages Consultants/Consultancy bodies. My Department does not have visibility on all of the staffing of such bodies including whether retired officials may be engaged within those bodies and therefore does not hold information on whether retired officials are re-engaged as consultants or as part of consultancy contracts.

However, in tendering and putting in place such contracts my Department operates under the Department of Public Expenditure NDP Delivery and Reform guidelines on Public Procurement Guidelines for Goods and Services that includes provisions for declaring conflicts of interest.

Aside from consultancy services, each year in its Appropriation Account, my Department provides details of retired civil servants in receipt of a civil service pension that are re-engaged on a fee basis to complete specified and time-bound blocks of work where their expertise in these areas makes it prudent and expedient to do so. The payments made in these cases are consistent with the principles of the Public Service (Single Scheme and other Provisions) Act 2012. Details of published Appropriation Accounts for my Department may be found on the C&AG website at the following link: www.audit.gov.ie/en/publications/appropriation%20accounts/appropriation-accounts-20231.html