913 Deputy Alan Shatter asked the Minister for Community, Equality and Gaeltacht Affairs with regard to legal services used by his Department, any body under the aegis of his Department and any State agency for which he is responsible; if he will give details of the legal services of which there has been competitive tendering in each of the years 2008, 2009 and 2010; the legal firm in each case that furnished advice with regard to any such tendering and assisted in the preparation of tender documents and in each case to detail the solicitors firm that succeeded in each tendering process, the nature of the work for which each firm successfully tendered and the fees paid for any such advice or assistance to each firm for work for which it tendered. [1647/11]

I am advised that no legal services were procured following competitive tendering by my own Department, or by the following bodies funded from my Department's Vote Group: the Office of the Commissioner of Charitable Donations and Bequests; the Dormant Accounts Board; An Foras Teanga (comprising Foras na Gaeilge and the Ulster-Scots Agency); the Equality Authority; the Equality Tribunal; and the Family Support Agency.

Details with respect to instances where legal services were procured by bodies funded from my Department's Vote Group following a competitive tendering process between 1 January 2008 and 31 December 2010 are set out in the table below. I am advised that the services of external solicitors and barristers were procured in these cases to provide essential legal advice, legal opinion or to carry out specialist legal work where the legal expertise required was not available in-house. I am also advised that no legal advice was sought or fees paid to legal firms to assist in the preparation of tender documents as referred to by the Deputy.