Albert Dolan (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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923. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills 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. [55368/25]

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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My Department publishes its annual consultancy spend on the Department website.

Please find a copy of the link to this information here:

www.gov.ie/en/department-of-further-and-higher-education-research-innovation-and-science/organisation-information/department-consultancy-spending/

The Deputy will note the names of companies whose services were procured and the costs spent in each year. The website also states whether any reports commissioned were for either publication and/or for internal use within the Department.

The Deputy should note that the publications are currently recorded up to 2023.

2024 figures will be published online by the end of October.

Consultancy spend is published in arrears annually, in line with the accounts process.

DFHERIS has now taken ownership of recording departmental consultancy spend, as part of the transfer of functions from the Department of Education.

We would plan to publish 2025 Consultancy Spend by the end of Q1 2026

Expenditure on external consultancy and adviser fees is not separately disclosed in the Department’s Financial Statements as there is no obligation to do so.

The procurement of such services has been conducted by my Department in compliance with the applicable public procurement regulations and competitive tendering requirements, in accordance with the guidelines issued by the Office of Government Procurement OGP and relevant EU and national legislation.

In relation to Section 1.5 of the Code of Practice for the Governance of State Bodies referenced by the Deputy, the information in respect of state bodies, within the scope of the Deputy’s question, is not held by my Department. Contact details for these bodies are set out below, should the Deputy wish to contact the aegis bodies directly with his query.