Stormont depts spent £100m on consultancy fees

The North's government departments have spent more than £100m (€109m) on consultancy fees in the past five years, according to figures obtained by the SDLP.

The figures show that the Department of Regional Development spent £35m (€38m) of this figure.

The next highest spending on consultancy was by the Department of Finance (£21m, or €22.9m)), followed by the Department of Enterprise (£15.5m, or €16.9m).

SDLP MLA Patsy McGlone says he is astounded by the level of spending and is calling on the various departments to explain what the money was spent on and how it benefited the people of Northern Ireland.