Albert Dolan (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

88. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade further to Parliamentary Question No. 2148 of 4 November 2025 to the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science in which he confirmed that, although not required by statute, her Department voluntarily publishes its annual consultancy spending online in the interest of transparency and accessibility, if her Department operates a similar practice; if not, whether consideration will be given to adopting this approach as a transparency measure consistent with the Code of Practice for the Governance of State Bodies and wider open-government principles; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [68458/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

This Department complies with the requirement to publish all purchase orders exceeding €20,000, as required under the 2011 Public Service Reform Plan. These publications refer to transactions for goods and services. These are publicly accessible and published quarterly in arrears on the gov.ie website on this weblink: www.gov.ie/en/department-of-foreign-affairs/organisation-information/payments-over-20000.

While there is no statutory requirement to publish annual consultancy spending online, consideration will be given to publishing this consultancy expenditure data online on an annual basis.