Grace Boland (Dublin Fingal West, Fine Gael)
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3317. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the total spend by his Department on external legal services in each of the past three years; the main areas of legal activity for which external advice was sought; if he will provide a breakdown by case or category; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40837/25]

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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All legal costs for my Department are included within the published Appropriation Accounts, under 6.1 within Vote 45. Please find the link below. The 2024 Accounts are currently under audit and will be published once the audit is complete.

My Department procured external legal advice in the following years:

In 2023 to provide legal services for the Minister in relation to changes to the PPP Contract at National Maritime College, Ireland (NMCI).

In 2022 to support the drafting of transposing instrument for Directive (EU) 2018/958 on a proportionality test before adoption of new regulation of professions. This work was completed in 2022 with the Directive transposed into Irish law via S.I. No. 413/2022 - European Union (Regulated Professions Proportionality Assessment) Regulations 2022.