Departmental Consultations

Thursday, 29 June 2023

Questions (355)

Seán Sherlock

Question:

355. Deputy Sean Sherlock asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the amount paid out to all consultancy firms for any services rendered; and the cost per contract for the year-to-date 2023, in tabular form [31682/23]

View answer

Written answers

Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine

It is not possible to provide the information requested by the Deputy in the required time. The information is currently being compiled and I will forward it to the Deputy as soon as possible.

The following deferred reply was received under Standing Order 51.

This Department seeks to minimise the use of consultants and only engages consultancy firms when particular additional expertise is required for delivery of the services which support the business processes of the Department. Such services are used in areas where the Department does not have the necessary expertise or internal capacity to deliver the services and where it would not make practical, operational or economic sense to build up this capability within the Department.

A number of these engagements are necessary to satisfy auditing and EU regulatory requirements and where independent evaluation of projects is required. All contracts are negotiated with a view to achieving best value for money and keeping expenditure to a minimum.

I now wish to advise you that the information requested is set out in the table below.

Company	Details of service rendered	Cost to date in 2023 €
EY	Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine – EAGF AND EAFRD Annual Accounts Certification for Financial Year 2022. Requirement of EU Legislation.	150,000
EY	Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine – EAGF AND EAFRD Annual Accounts Certification for Financial Years 2023 to 2025. Requirement of EU Legislation	480,000
Designwest	IT Consultancy/Design	1,230
Wood Energy Consulting	Wood fuel consultancy	9,516
Grant Thornton	Organisational Review	31,088
Flynn, Furney Environmental Consultants Ltd	The Maintenance of National Network of Bait Logs & Pheromone Traps 2023	31,383
Philip Lee Solicitors	Regulatory Review	10,824
IFER	IT Consultancy/Design	4,800
KPMG	Preparation of Cost Benefits Analysis for actions identified in report Opportunities for the Irish Horticulture Sector	13,776
Mazars	IT Audit Consultancy – technical expertise	10,978
Certification Europe	Independent assessments of the Department’s ISO 27001:2013 certification. Required for EU accreditation purposes.	10,824
Forensic Docexam Ireland Ltd	Forensic document examination	900
Demesne Architects Ltd	Longtown Farm Gate Lodge Upgrade, Architectural services	14,141
Demesne Architects Ltd	Scope Change to Lab 4 and Lab 7 Refurbishment	17,480
Demesne Architects Ltd	High to Low Security Changing Facility Longtown Farm feasibility scoping exercise	2,306
Ove Arup & Partners	User Requirement Specification Design and Site Supervision	3,690
Demesne Architects Ltd	Poultry Unit Longtown Farm, feasibility scoping exercise	1,845
Demesne Architects Ltd	Architectural Plans Library Backweston	3,014