Coalition pays out €10m on policy reports

Government departments have paid close to €10m to outside consultants to carry out more than 200 reports on policy issues since the Coalition came into office in Mar 2011.

The sum only relates to reports commissioned by ministers and does not include sums paid for IT, legal, and other outside advice.

The figures emerged as TDs and senators prepare to question Irish Water bosses about spending €50m on outside consultants when they appear at the Oireachtas Environment Committee today.

The controversy is expected to come before Cabinet today, when ministers will consider bringing the agency under the Freedom of Information Act, which it had not planned on doing until next year.

As Irish Water tries to limit the fallout from the controversy, its spokesperson said officials, including chief executive John Tierney, will give “detailed information” on what companies were involved, the sums paid, and who authorised them.

Committee chairman Michael McCarthy said the public “has a right to know exactly how this money was spent and how it can be justified”.

He said: “Public confidence in Irish Water needs to be strong, and transparency is a key component of that.”

The PAC is precluded from examining the accounts of Irish Water, but its chairman, John McGuinness, has called a special meeting for tomorrow evening to examine how accountability and oversight can be enhanced.

He said the Water Services Act, rushed through the Dáil before Christmas, does not contain any provision for value for money reports.

Meanwhile, a series of parliamentary questions has revealed that €9.7m was paid to consultants to carry out a range of reports on policy issues for ministers — which the opposition argues could, in many cases, be done by civil servants.

Environment Minister Phil Hogan had the highest bill, spending €3.4m on 31 reports since Mar 2011.

This includes a sum of €179,584 paid to PricewaterhouseCoopers for “consultancy services” on the establishment of Irish Water.

A further €51,789 was paid to the Economic and Social Research Institute for a report on “the affordability aspects of the provision of water services in Ireland”.

However. the figures, which cover until July 2013, do not include the remainder of the €50m spent by the water utility company.

The Department of Finance paid €146,000 to Mercer for its review of pay to bankers in bailed-out financial institutions. The report resulted in Finance Minister Michael Noonan calling for cuts of up to 10% in bankers’ pay.

Mr Noonan said his department has spent €3.2m for external advice throughout 2013, including just under €2m on legal fees.

A further €4.7m was paid in the first half of 2013 for consultants to advise Nama, bringing the total consultancy bill at the organisation to €20m since 2010.

The data was obtained in response to a series of parliamentary questions from Fianna Fáil’s Niall Collins, who said the committee system should be given more powers to review the use of external consultant reports.