HSA spent €1m a year on consultants during boom years

THE Health and Safety Authority was spending almost €1 million a year on consultants during the boom but reduced the bill by 80% when its budget was cut.

The money was spent on legal fees, human resources, software services, security providers and private investigators.

In 2005 alone, the bill was €1,520,228. Three companies earned more than €200,000 each from their dealings with the authority.

The overall amount fell in 2006 and 2007 and stood at €787,327 in 2008.

Its highest fee in 2008 was a legal charge by Mason Hayes Curran, which came in at €99,982.

That year the HSA was given a budget of €24.2m. But when this was cut to €23m in 2009, the consultants’ fees fell dramatically.

In 2009, the most expensive bill was €38,000, for services supplied by Orphin Consulting.

The figures, which were released to a Cork-based businessman Frank Delaney under the Freedom of Information Act, have been supplied to the Dáil Public Accounts Committee.

At yesterday’s meeting, committee chairman Bernard Allen TD said: “We have informed the secretary general of the department [Seán Gorman] and we have asked him to examine the figures and get an explanation to see if all spending was in line with Department of Finance guidelines. We are not making any judgment on them at this stage.”

A HSA spokesman said the services were necessary. “Consultants are sometimes engaged on a temporary basis to provide highly specialised expertise that would be uneconomical to retain on a permanent basis.”

The committee was also supplied with the details of overseas travel expenses and mileage allowances paid to HSA staff.

This showed that in five years, it had authorised more than €135,000 on airline tickets. The spokesman said the authority was involved with international committees and these needed to be attended.

In relation to mileage spend, the spokesman said it was the nature of inspectors’ work to be on the road. “Much of the job of an inspector involves visiting a range of workplaces including chemical plants, engineering facilities, farms, building sites and retail stores… This activity invariably requires a substantial level of travel.”