Cork County Council pays €7m for outside expertise

Cork County Council spent nearly €7m employing external consultants in 2014, while it forked out a total of €3.13m on legal advice during the past three years.

The spend was yesterday criticised by councillors but the chief executive said it was forced to seek outside expertise due to technical staff not being replaced.

Officials revealed details to Cllr Seamus McGrath (FF) who expressed concern that €6,800,537 of public funding was paid to consultants.