Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Wednesday, 30 Oct 1996

Vol. 470 No. 7

Written Answers. - Consultancy Costs.

Seán Ryan

Ceist:

193 Mr. S. Ryan asked the Minister for Justice if she will provide details of expenditure on consultancy in her Department in 1995 or the most recent year for which figures are available; and if she will provide an analysis of this expenditure as a proportion of staffing and administration costs. [19725/96]

Seán Ryan

Ceist:

194 Mr. S. Ryan asked the Minister for Justice if she will give details of the overall expenditure on consultancy by her Department in each of the years 1985, 1990 and 1995, or the most recent year for which completed figures are available; and if she will provide an analysis of these figures as a proportion of overall staffing and administration costs for each of these years. [19726/96]

Minister for Justice (Mrs. Owen)

I propose to take Questions Nos. 193 and 194 together.

The following tabular statement gives the available information as contained in the Appropriation Accounts for 1995, 1990 and 1985 for the Votes under my aegis. This information is not complete, however, as not all Votes have specific consultancy sub-heads or sub-head items and some consultancies are not paid for from the consultancy sub-head even when one exists.

Year	Consultancy (A)	Pay (B)	Administration non-pay (C)
1985	£41,000	£230,698,000 0.018% (A of B)*	£22,790,000 0.18% (A of C)*
1990	£78,000	£306,148,000 0.025% (A of B)*	£34,319,000 0.227% (A of C)*
1995	£135,000	£405,808,000 0.033% (A of B)*	£45,926,000 0.294% (A of C)*

*Consultancy costs (A) are shown as a percentage of Pay costs (B) and of Administration costs (C).

The bulk of consultancy work in the Department of Justice relates to the day to day work of the Department and its agencies such as An Garda Síochána and the Land Registry. The increase in the 1990 and 1995 figures, as compared with 1985, can be accounted for by the increased use of consultancy in An Garda Síochána, particularly in relation to the development and implementation of their information technology strategy.