Confusion over ‘hundreds of thousands’ being spent on consultants for Carlow projects

The use of consultations for infrastructure projects in Carlow is costing “hundreds of thousands”, a council meeting has heard.

The issue was raised by People Before Profit-Solidarity councillor Adrienne Wallace at the January plenary meeting of Carlow County Council.

Cllr Wallace said: “How much are we paying consultants? There seems to be consultants needed for every single project and then the fees are in the hundreds of thousands for each project.

“Like would it not be better to actually just employ consultants directly with the council?”

She continued by giving an example of a project which was undertaken by the council using in-house consultancy.

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“With the Deerpark Roundabout, we were able to get that done so quickly and under budget or around the budget because we had an in-house design team, so is that something that’s going to be considered?

“I know with the URDF (Urban Regeneration and Development Fund) that there’s 2 million at least [being] spent on consultants and that’s a huge portion of the budget.

“So I think that would be fantastic if the council can look at it. Have we the ability to do that and can we do so?”

In response to Cllr Wallace, Coilín O’Reilly, Chief Executive of Carlow County Council, explained why the council chooses not to hire consultants.

Mr O’Reilly said: “Every capital project you can take about 10 per cent of the cost is going to consultancy, whether it’s engineers, whether it’s ‘mech-elec’, whatever it happens to be.

“The reality is you could put them on your staffing bill but then you have them forever. So the idea with consultants for capital projects is that the capital project happens over a three or four year period.”

He continued by saying that the Urban Regeneration and Development Fund (URDF) is a good example of this.

“The URDF is a really good example. That has a timeline of two to three years.

“At the end of the three years, there might be a downturn in the world economy and then you don’t need those engineers anymore but yet they’re on your pay roll.

“So in general, most of the consultants we use are for capital projects.”

Mr O’Reilly concluded by reassuring councillors that all uses of consultants have to be signed off by him.