Consultancy Contracts Expenditure

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 19 November 2013

Tuesday, 19 November 2013

Questions (379, 380)

Lucinda Creighton

Question:

379. Deputy Lucinda Creighton asked the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht further to Parliamentary Question No. 237 of 12 November 2013, if he will provide the data requested for Departments now under his responsibility that existed between 2003 and the establishment of a single Department on 2 June 2011; if he has no responsibility for this data, if he will indicate which Minister or Ministers have responsibility for providing this information; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [49322/13]

Lucinda Creighton

Question:

380. Deputy Lucinda Creighton asked the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht further to Parliamentary Question No. 238 of 12 November 2013, if he will provide the data requested for Departments now under his responsibility that existed between 2003 and the establishment of his single Department on 2 June 2011; if he has no responsibility for this data, if he will indicate which Minister or Ministers have responsibility for providing this information; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [49323/13]

Written answers

Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht

I propose to take Questions Nos. 379 and 380 together.

The Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht was established on 2 June 2011 on foot of a reorganisation of Government Departments announced by the Taoiseach in March 2011. It brought together functions from the former Departments of Tourism, Culture and Sport; Environment, Heritage and Local Government; and Community, Equality and Gaeltacht Affairs.

I am advised that the difficulties in retrieving information of the nature sought by the Deputy for periods prior to establishment date are such that it is not realistically possible to do so. These difficulties include getting access to the relevant records and disaggregating work commissioned in the past to serve wider Departments as then constituted and ascribing it to the specific Divisions subsequently relocated to my Department. It was for these reasons that the relevant information sought by the Deputy was provided from the establishment date of my Department.