Noonan defends extra €5m outlay

Minister for Finance Michael Noonan has defended his department’s plans to spend a further €5m in consultants which was last night described as “totally unjustifiable” by Sinn Féin’s finance spokes- person Pearse Doherty.

Mr Doherty said plans to increase expenditure on outside consultants from €3.8m to €8.9m was unjustifiable at a time when the most vulnerable were being asked to live on less.

“The public are rightly questioning the use of external consultants given the debacle at Irish Water,” he said, adding: “As we have seen in the past, it is the usual suspects of accounting bodies and legal bodies who will benefit from these contracts.”