Written answer
Consultancy Contracts Data
391. Deputy Lucinda Creighton asked the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the name, costs, date of commission, date or expected date of publication and name of the external consultant of all external reports commissioned by her Department since March 2011. [3761/16]
Comment on this
The details requested by the Deputy in respect of reports commissioned by my Department since its establishment in June 2011 are set out in the following table.
The Deputy may wish to note that the University of Birmingham was commissioned in 2010 by the then Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, prior to the establishment of my Department, to undertake a review relating to peatlands. The resulting report, "Review of Archaeological Survey and Mitigation Policy relating to Bord na Móna Peatlands " was published in June 2013 and the associated costs of €34,337 were met by my Department.
For completeness, I would point out that my Department commissions engineering or environmental experts from time to time 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 is not funded from my Department's Administrative Budget. Similarly, contracts for the provision of services are not classified as consultancy services and any reports produced by the contractors in the course of such contracts are not included.