Over €30m spent by Government departments on external legal, HR, accountancy, and consultancy services

This includes €14.3m by the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications alone, with over €10m allocated for costs associated with the National Broadband Plan

Eamon Ryan's department has paid out over €10m to private consultants who provided advice on the National Broadband Plan in the last year alone.

Government departments have spent over €30m hiring external legal teams, HR specialists, accountancy firms, and consultants in the past year.

The most sizeable portion of this was spent by the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications, which racked up a €14.3m bill, including over  €10m of external legal and consultancy advice on the National Broadband Plan (NDP).