Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 16 January 2013
220. Deputy Mary Lou McDonald asked the Minister for Finance further to Parliamentary Questions Nos 96 and 97 of 17 October 2012, when he intends to forward a response; the reason it has taken him at least three months to respond to questions relating to consultancy and legal expenditure by his Department. [2018/13]
View answerThe two parliamentary questions posed by the Deputy were as follows: PQ 45297/12 - To ask the Minister for Finance if he will provide details in tabular form for the years 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 and to date in 2012 the total amount of expenditure on consultancy by his Department, any body under his aegis or State agency for which he has responsibility; the names of the consultancy companies awarded contracts; the nature of the work concerned; the fees paid to each consultant; if the matter was advertised for competitive tender; and if he will make a statement on the matter .
PQ 45314/12 – To ask the Minister for Finance if he will provide details in tabular form for the years 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 and to date in 2012 inclusive, of the arrangements entered into by him, any body under his aegis or State agency for which he has responsibility for the obtaining of advice from a senior or junior counsel and or a firm of solicitors; the subject matter for which advice was sought; the names of the barristers' and solicitors' firms concerned and the fees paid; the nature of the work concerned; if in each case the matter was advertised for competitive tender; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
These questions were not therefore simply confined to information in relation to my Department. Had this been the case a reply would have been available immediately.
The scope of the questions, both in terms of the number of calendar years included in the request, the inclusion of bodies and state agencies under the remit of my Department, and the level of data requested for each item, meant that the compilation of the data in order to provide a full response to the questions was time-consuming and voluminous. Furthermore, the questions were received at a time when staff responsible for compiling the data for their respective Offices were also heavily involved in the Estimates process and subsequently the year end process.
A reply to PQ 45314 was completed last week and has now issued from my Department. A reply to PQ 45297 is expected to issue before the end of this week.
