Ken O'Flynn

584. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Defence the extent to which contracts with external contractors in the years 2022 to 2025 exceeded national or EU procurement thresholds requiring competitive tendering; and if she will provide a breakdown by year and value band. [26789/26]

585. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Defence the number and total value of contracts awarded through the Office of Government Procurement frameworks in each of the years 2022 to 2025; and the policy basis for using such frameworks instead of standalone tender processes. [26790/26]

586. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Defence the breakdown of expenditure on external contractors in each of the years 2022 to 2025 by category of service, including but not limited to consultancy, legal services, communications, policy development, and research, in tabular form. [26791/26]

587. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Defence the projects, programmes, or policy initiatives to which external contractor expenditure related to in each of the years 2022 to 2025; the cost attributable to each project; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [26792/26]

588. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Defence whether his Department conducted any assessment comparing the cost of using external contractors with the cost of delivering the same work internally; and if so, the findings of such assessments. [26794/26]

589. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Defence the value-for-money or post-project evaluation mechanisms applied to expenditure on external contractors in the years 2022 to 2025; whether any formal evaluations were completed; and if he will provide details. [26795/26]

590. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Defence whether any internal audit, external audit, or Comptroller and Auditor General review has examined expenditure on external contractors by her Department in the years 2022 to 2025; and if so, the findings and dates of such reviews. [26796/26]

591. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Defence the number of external contractors engaged by his Department in each of the years 2022 to 2025; the total value of payments made to each contractor in each year; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [26799/26]

592. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Defence the extent to which contracts with external contractors in the years 2022 to 2025 exceeded national or EU procurement thresholds requiring competitive tendering; and if he will provide a breakdown by year and value band. [26801/26]

593. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Defence the breakdown of expenditure on external contractors in each of the years 2022 to 2025 by category of service, including but not limited to consultancy, legal services, communications, policy development, and research; and if he will provide a detailed table. [26803/26]

594. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Defence further to Parliamentary Question No. 42 of 4 March 2025, the reasons for the increase in expenditure on external contractors from €8,764 in 2022 to €318,874 in 2024; and the policy decisions that drove this increase. [26805/26]

595. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Defence the approval process required within his Department before engaging external contractors, including the grade level at which approval is granted and any expenditure thresholds that trigger additional oversight. [26811/26]

596. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Defence whether his Department has a formal policy governing the use of external contractors; the circumstances in which such contractors may be engaged; and the measures in place to ensure reliance on external services does not substitute for internal capacity. [26812/26]

884. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance his Department’s current assessment of the potential inflationary impact on the Irish economy arising from sustained increases in global energy prices; to detail any modelling undertaken regarding second-round effects on food prices and household purchasing power; and to outline the fiscal policy options available to Government to mitigate cost-of-living pressures arising from such external shocks. [23589/26]

885. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance to outline the Government’s cross-departmental contingency planning for a scenario involving simultaneous energy price inflation and economic slowdown; to detail whether any updated cost-of-living support framework is being prepared; and to set out the criteria under which additional public expenditure interventions would be triggered. [23592/26]

926. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance the number of claims made for the Incapacitated Child Tax Credit in each of the past five years; the number approved and refused in each year; the number selected for compliance review or audit; whether the Revenue Commissioners have identified any concentration of claims supported by medical certification from a single medical practitioner or a small number of practitioners, including the number of cases involved (anonymised); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24962/26]

927. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance the number of applications for the incapacitated child tax credit received by the Revenue Commissioners in each of the past five years; the number of applications that were supported by medical certificates from registered medical practitioners in the same period; the number of such applications that were reviewed by the Revenue Commissioners as part of compliance/audit checks; and the number that resulted in confirmation of eligibility versus rejection; the criteria and safeguards that are in place to ensure that medical certifications submitted in support of claims are valid and compliant with statute; whether the Revenue Commissioners routinely analyses trends in claims by category for example, geographic origin or other appropriate demographic breakdowns for the purpose of detecting unusual patterns; if so, the fields of analysis that are available, the statistics broken down accordingly, subject to data protection and equality law; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24968/26]

1043. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation whether he accepts that the evidential presumption in respect of penalisation under the Protected Disclosures Act 2014, as amended, is not currently required to be applied during the administrative handling and investigation of disclosures by public bodies; and whether he will introduce a formal policy requirement to ensure consistency between administrative decision-making and the evidential framework applied in proceedings before the Workplace Relations Commission and the courts. [24675/26]

1044. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation whether any assessment has been undertaken of the potential litigation risk arising from administrative decisions taken by public bodies in relation to protected disclosures where the evidential presumption provided for under Sections 12 and 13 of the Protected Disclosures Act 2014, as amended, is not applied; and if so, to provide details of that assessment. [24676/26]

1045. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation whether he will issue a circular or binding instruction to all Departments, agencies, and prescribed persons requiring that, in assessing alleged penalisation of a reporting person under the Protected Disclosures Act 2014, as amended, decision-makers apply an evidential approach consistent with that set out in the Act for adjudicative proceedings. [24677/26]

1046. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation whether he is satisfied that the current administrative handling of protected disclosures by public bodies fully reflects the objectives of Directive (EU) 2019/1937, in particular the requirement to ensure effective protection against retaliation at all stages of the process, including internal assessment and investigation. [24678/26]

1079. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation if he will confirm whether a comprehensive audit or condition survey has been conducted of the Garda station estate nationwide since 2020; if so, the date of the most recent audit; whether such audit assessed structural condition, compliance with modern policing requirements, and public accessibility standards; and if he will provide a summary of the findings and any resulting capital investment priorities identified by his Department. [26440/26]

1080. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation to provide the number of Garda stations identified, through any assessment conducted by his Department or by the Office of Public Works, as requiring minor repair works, major refurbishment, or full replacement; and if he will outline the criteria used to classify stations within each category. [26441/26]

1081. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation to outline the current capital investment programme for Garda station refurbishment and replacement, including the total funding allocated in each of the years 2023, 2024, 2025 and 2026, the number of projects approved, commenced and completed in each of those years, and the projected pipeline of works planned for the period 2026 to 2029. [26442/26]

1082. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation to set out the role of the Office of Public Works in the maintenance, refurbishment and development of Garda stations; whether a formal service-level agreement or governance framework is in place between his Department, the Office of Public Works and An Garda Síochána; and how capital project prioritisation decisions are determined within this framework. [26443/26]