Minister defends department's spent on outside consultants

Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources Pat Rabbitte has today defended his use of outside consultants.

The Irish Times reported that seven Government departments have spent almost €3m in fees to consultants since March 2011.

The Department of Health spent the most money, thought to be over €800,000, whilst Minister Pat Rabbitte's department came second, spending almost €600,000 on 13 reports.

Minister Rabbitte said that he would have thought his Department should be top of the list.

"I would have thought that my department should have been top of the scale in terms of the use of consultants because of the technical nature of the department itself," he said.

"You simply would not be able to retain the professional people you require [by employing them full-time]."