The Government will cut down on its “massive” spend on external consultants by using experts from the National Development Finance Agency (NDFA), the public expenditure minister has said. He admitted there may still be an element of consultancy spend across departments, but said having a “central pool of expertise” would see the overall spend fall. “Having consistency in the application of project delivery across Government is something that moves away from the fragmented nature of consultancy spend today,” he said. On wider reforms, the public expenditure minister said the Government would be removing “current layers and decision points” from the process of developing infrastructure projects. It is expected that the redevelopment of the GPO and the National Concert Hall will be the first projects to use the NDFA expertise.

Source: Irish Examiner January 28, 2026 06:35 UTC