459. Deputy Sandra McLellan asked the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if he will provide in tabular form the amount of money spent on private consultants for each of the past four years; and the proposed expenditure for 2014 providing detailed aims and objectives of the contact. [29952/14]

As the Deputy will be aware, my Department was established on 2 June 2011. The following table lists the payments made to consultants from my Department's Administrative Budget since that date. It may be noted that contracts for the provision of services are not included.

In the published 2014 Revised Estimates Volume for my Department, the annual funding allocation under that specific subhead is €100,000. This funding is utilised to engage external expert advice to support analysis and policy development in my Department. Value for money is an overriding consideration in relation to the engagement of consultancy services.

For completeness, I wish to bring to the Deputy's attention that from time to time my Department also commissions engineering or environmental experts to provide technical reports on specific issues as required. While the providers of these services are consultant engineers, environmental consultants or may describe themselves in other such terms, their work is not classified as "consultancy services and policy reviews" and is not funded from my Department's Administrative Budget.