Thirteen Government departments spent 174 million on almost 3,000 consultants' reports and public relations contracts since 1998, information released to Fine Gael's finance spokesman Richard Bruton has shown.
The Department of the Environment spent the most during this period, paying €32.5 million to private-sector companies for reports and other consultancy services, the figures show. The Department of Finance comes next, having spent almost €30 million on such contracts with private-sector organisations during this period.
The figures do not include the sums paid by the departments of Health and of Justice, departments which make up 33 per cent of Government spending.
Mr Bruton yesterday criticised "the senseless waste of taxpayers' money on expensive consultant reports, which are never implemented".
He said there appeared to be no guidelines in place for commissioning consultants or reports. "Indeed, it is common practice by this Government when things go wrong to also outsource the blame."
He said the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources had paid for 336 reports and consultancies to be carried out since 1998 - one report a week over the last 6½ years. Micheál Martin, as minister for health, ordered 145 reports to be undertaken at a cost of €30.1m to the taxpayer - 207,000 per report, said Mr Bruton. "I would question the number of recommendations or initiatives that have ever been implemented. There may on occasion be a genuine need for consultancy. However, it has got to be carefully monitored and its findings followed through."
He said guidelines for the Government when taking on a consultant should at a minimum include: careful specification of the scope of the job; specific benchmarks of achievement in the roll out of the consultancy; ensuring premium rates are not paid for low-grade work or "off-the-shelf" material; penalty clauses for failures by consultants; and giving an "in-house person" clear responsibility for achieving what is deliverable.
"A consultancy should never be used for sidestepping in-house responsibility for taking decisions for policy or expending money," he said.
"Ultimately the Minister must stand over spending decisions for which s/he is answerable to the Dáil."