Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 28 Mar 2002

Vol. 551 No. 4

Written Answers. - Consultancy Contracts.

Phil Hogan

Question:

189 Mr. Hogan asked the Minister for Arts, Heritage Gaeltacht and the Islands the amount of funding for consultancy and related study contracts which has been approved as part of the 2002 departmental Estimates and the budgets of each organisation and agency falling within the Department's aegis for this type of work; the degree of cutback compared to 2001; the consultancy projects which have been cancelled or postponed as a consequence of the cutbacks; the capital projects which will be postponed as a consequence of the cutback in consultancy budgets; the consultancy projects under consideration with her Department and its agencies which will be funded in 2002; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [10933/02]

Minister for Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands (Miss de Valera)

Subhead A7 of my Department's Vote is the main source of funding for consultancies undertaken by my Department, although the costs of some consultancies are met from divisional subheads. In the context of the Revised Estimates Volume for 2002, the allocation of €2,385,000 in 2002 to Subhead A7 represents an increase of 202% over the provisional outturn for 2001, which was €791,000. The main reason for the increase relates to expenditure on the Department information framework and IT projects. Clearly, as there has been no cutback, there has been no need to cancel or postpone any planned capital projects or consultancies as a consequence.

The major consultancies planned for 2002 in my Department, and the three main national cultural institutions, National Museum, National Library and National Archives that are part of my Department, are set out in the following table. The Deputy will appreciate that I have no role with regard to consultancies undertaken on behalf of other bodies under my Department's aegis such as the Heritage Council, Irish Film Board, and Údarás na Gaeltachta.

Location	Nature of consultancy in 2002
Department of Arts, Heritage, Gaeltachtand the Islands	E-Government Initiative,The Management InformationFramework,
	Planning applications,
	Human resource management,
	Heritage Databases,
	GIS rollout
	Gaeltacht client database,
	Records management,
	Site management,
	IT Network infrastructure,
	The Departmental finance system,
	Options for the provision of visitor access to the Burren National Park,
	Stack A “Museum of Dublin” Feasibility Study,
	ISO certification of visitor services,
	Conservation plan for Poulnabrone
	Financial management system, NMI
	Training needs analysis,
	Strategic review of communications systems,
	Feasibility study on inventory of NMI collections
	Database systems support National Archives
	Employee safety issues,