Paul Connaughton
Ceist:293 Mr. Connaughton asked the Minister for Arts, Heritage Gaeltacht and the Islands the amount Dúchas paid to consultants in each of the years from 1997 to 1999; and the amount it will pay in 2000. [4245/00]
Written Answers. - Consultancy Payments.
The general expenditure by my Department on consultants during the years in question is as follows:
Departmental Expenditure
|
1997 |
£104,000 |
|
1998 |
£391,000 |
|
1999 |
£441,000 |
The heritage divisions of my Department engage consultants from time to time as the need arises. These consultants are engaged to provide a particular service as an integral part of specific projects. These are paid from the individual operational subhead, and are not included in the above.
In the time available to reply to this question, I regret that it would not have been possible to extract the information in respect of operational consultancies for the years in question, as this would have necessitated an examination by my officials of each file and expenditure subhead relating to every project undertaken by the heritage divisions over the last three years. Should the Deputy be interested in a particular project however, I would be happy to instruct my officials to elicit the relevant information.
In 2000, the provision made in the Book of Estimates for general consultancies across the Department is £578,000. It is too early to say what proportion of this provision will be given to consultancies related to Dúchas.
Other consultants will be engaged to assist in operational projects in 2000 as the need arises and will be charged to the operational subheads as heretofore.