362. Deputy Lucinda Creighton asked the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the name, cost, date of commission, date or expected date of publication and name of the external consultant of all external reports commissioned by his Department since March 2011. [3763/16]

My Department administers a very diverse, complex and technical brief across critical and strategic sectors of the Irish economy. While it has a total complement of around 250 full time equivalent staff of whom a number are technical personnel, the technical, commercial, legal complexity and evolving nature of sectors with which the Department deals requires access to external professional expertise to assist in discharging its functions. In procuring these specialised services, my Department always seeks to ensure value for money and that these services contribute to project delivery and informed, robust and evidence based policy making.

The bulk of the studies are technical and specialist in nature and were necessary to address specific issues as they arose and enable the Department to discharge its policy and project responsibilities in the areas concerned.

Details of the external reports commissioned by my Department are set out in the following table: