Albert Dolan (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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637. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if his Department and each body under its aegis discloses expenditure on external consultancy and adviser fees, by category (details supplied) in their annual report and or financial statements for each accounting year; if they provide direct web links to the most recent publications where these Section 1.5 disclosures are set out for his Department and for each aegis body; and if they provide the total consultancy and adviser fees by the Section 1.5 categories for each of the past five years for his Department and for each aegis body, respectively; and the internal controls that are in place to ensure that these category-level disclosures are made annually and that procurement of such services complies with applicable competitive tendering rules, in tabular form. [55370/25]

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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State bodies under the aegis of my Department are independent in the performance of their functions and my Department does not collate or hold the specific information requested.

My Department does however engage in a number of ways with the bodies under its aegis regarding the requirement to comply with all relevant business and financial reporting requirements. For example, an annual survey in respect of compliance with the Code of Practice for the Governance of State Bodies is issued to all the State bodies each year and includes a series of questions on business and financial reporting requirements, including consultancy reporting requirements.

The most recent survey in 2024 confirmed that all bodies subject to this reporting requirement disclosed, where relevant, information on external consultancy and adviser fees in their annual report and financial statements. Annual reports are published on each body's website.

The Deputy may wish to contact the State bodies directly for details of expenditure on external consultancy and adviser fees over the past five years. Arrangements have been put in place by each State body to facilitate the provision of information directly to members of the Oireachtas. Contact email addresses for each body are set out in the table below.