Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Wednesday, 9 Oct 2002

Vol. 554 No. 5

Written Answers. - Consultancy Contracts.

Bernard Allen

Ceist:

199 Mr. Allen asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the amount of funding for consultant and related study contracts which has been approved as part of the 2002 departmental estimates and the budgets in each organisation and agency falling within her Department's aegis for this type of work; the degree of cutback compared to 2001; the consultancy projects which have been cancelled or postponed as a consequence of the cutbacks; the capital projects which will be postponed as a consequence of the cutback in consultancy budgets; the consultancy projects under consideration with her Department and its agencies which will be funded in 2002; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [17175/02]

Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment (Ms Harney):

An amount of €1 million was approved for subhead A7 of my Department's administrative budget as part of the departmental Estimates for 2002 and a programme of consultancies was approved for funding by the management board from the approved allocation. This was an increase from the 2001 allocation of €698,000. No consultancy or related study contracts have been cancelled or postponed due to lack of funding nor have any capital projects been postponed as a consequence of any cutback in consultancy budgets. There are no further consultancy projects under consideration at present in my Department for 2002.

In addition to consultancies funded from my Department's administrative budget, provision for consultancy is included in the following subheads of the Department's Estimate:

Subhead	Consultancy 2002	Amount
A07	Consultancy Services 2002	€1,000,000
A09	Competition Authority	€300,000
A10	Office of Director of Corporate Enforcement	€180,000
A11	Labour Court	€239,000
A12	Information Society (Basis)	€400,000
M1	European Social Funds Policy	€139,152
H	Operational Programme	€7,276
S2	Interim Board of Irish Auditing and Accounting Supervisory Service	€38,236
F1	Office of Science and Technology	€127,000
R02	Office of Director of Consumer Affairs	€330,882
U	Shannon Development	€29,754
	Total	€2,791,300

There have been no reductions in the allocations to these subheads following publication of the Revised Estimates Volume for 2002.

The larger agencies such as FÁS, Enterprise Ireland, IDA Ireland, etc., which operate under the aegis of my Department are responsible for deciding their own consultancy requirements within the limits of their overall budgets. The amount of funding set aside for consultancy is a day to day matter for the agencies concerned.