Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 11 Oct 1994

Vol. 445 No. 6

Written Answers. - Departmental Advisers.

Mary Harney

Ceist:

148 Miss Harney asked the Minister for Finance the number of consultants, special advisers or programme managers retained by his Department since this Government took office; the nature of the work they have undertaken; and the cost of their services. [781/94]

Minister for Finance (Mr. B. Ahern)

The information requested by the Deputy in relation to my Department is as follows:

Finance

Strategic Management Initiative One consultant was employed to act as a facilitator for the implementation within this Department for the first phase of the Strategic Management Initiative launched by the Taoiseach in February of this year at a cost to date of £25,480.

Emergency Service Interdepartmental Committee

One consultant was engaged for the Slieve Bloom Area Radio Propagation Study at a cost of £3,672.

One consultant was engaged for the Prediction and Visibility Studies for Microwave circuits at a cost of £5,720.

One consultant was engaged for the Donegal Radio Propagation Study at a cost of £4,810.

One consultant was engaged for the Emergency Services Networking Study at a cost of £104,302.

One consultant was engaged for the Countrywide Radio Propagation Studies at a cost of £16,500.

The total for the Emergency Service Interdepartmental Committee is £135,004.

National Development Plan

Four consultants were employed to evaluate the effectiveness of the Community Support Framework and to make recommendations concerning strategy and priorities. The cost of the assignment was £130,000.

Five different consultants were engaged in the context of the preparation of the Community Framework. Their task was to assess the potential of the following new Operational Programmes: (a) Industry, (b) Tourism, (c) Agriculture, rural development and forestry, (d) economic infrastructure and (e) fisheries, at a total cost of £68,806.

INTERREG Programme

A management consultancy firm was awarded the contract to carry out a preliminary evaluation of the joint INTERREG Programme for Ireland-Northern Ireland 1991-1993. The cost of the assignment — Ireland's portion only — was £27,574.

Banking Sector

Two consultants were employed to advise me on available options in respect of ACC Bank, ICC Bank and TSB Bank in the context of Government policy for the banking sector. Two firms of brokers were also engaged in 1993 in connection with the disposal of part of the Minister of Finance's shareholding in Irish Life, one as adviser and one as broker. The total costs involved were £146,950.

Greencore

A firm of stockbrokers was engaged to advise me on both the first and final placings of Greencore shares. Commission of £115,937 was paid for the disposal of £33,125,000 worth of shares.

Special advisers and Programme Managers

There are two special advisers and one programme manager retained by this Department since this Government took office. The special adviser on my constituency office staff is a CO grade and liaises with various action and community groups within my constituency and meets with these groups when I am unable to attend. The Minister of State's special adviser may be required to perform any duties which may be assigned to her from time to time as appropriate to her position.

I have also retained the services of an economic adviser since August of this year.

The total cost of their service to date amounts to £109,953.00.

Information Technology A consultant was engaged to do an organisational impact study before the introduction of a new payroll system and to make recommendations on organisational changes which would be both effective and beneficial. The cost involved was £6,850.

Four consultants were retained to perform computer operations support and software maintenance in central information technology services at a total cost of £136,500.

Systems consultancy was performed in my own Department by six different consultants at a total cost of £15,213.