Naoise Ó Cearúil (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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218. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the number of external consultancy contracts entered into by his Department in the past five years, including the original estimated cost, the final cost, and the reasoning for contracting this work rather than using internal resources. [54328/25]

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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The engagement of external consultants is generally 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 available within my Department. As these skills are only required from time to time, it would generally not be efficient to retain them within my Department on a permanent basis. Due to the range in the types and nature of the engagements of consultants my Department does produce or retain estimated costs.

Details of external consultancies and the expenditure in each of the last five years is set out in the attached table.