The fees for consultants engaged by one county council amounted to €3.7 million over the past 12 months. A variety of consultants have been employed by Kerry County Council to carry out works ranging from archaeological assessments to quantity surveying.
The fees for approximately 50 consultants represent over one-fifth of Kerry's local government fund of €17 million from central government for 2002.
Some of the highest sums were paid to architects for building design, according to the reply to a motion by Councillor Paul O'Donoghue (FF), brother of the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism, Mr O'Donoghue.
Councillor O'Donoghue described the sums being paid out as "astronomical" and suggested much of the work could be undertaken by the council's own engineers, architects and planners.
Details of payments under €1,000 were not included in the reply.
Consultants were being engaged as "the first option, not the last option", Councillor O'Donoghue said. From now on they should be the last option, as much of the expertise being sought outside was already available in-house, he claimed.
He asked the council executive to justify architects' fees of almost €400,000 for the Cahirciveen Library and community centre in the former Christian Brothers' School:
"This was internal work. It wasn't rocket science," he said.
Mr Joe MacGrath, director of the council's community and enterprise services, said the fees to be paid to McCullough Mulvin Architects were for a whole centre, not just the library. A new building was involved.
Other consultancy costs were outlined at the meeting.
Reports on the Jeanie Johnston famine ship by Ernst &Young cost over €28,000.
The Great Blasket Island feasibility study by H.R. Wallingford amounted to €32,000.
O'Sullivan Campbell architects of Tralee and Killarney were to be paid a total of €600,000 in fees for the Castleisland Library, courthouse and offices. This was a €6 million project, explained Mr Michael McMahon, director of corporate services with Kerry County Council.
Malachy Walsh & Partners consulting engineers were to be paid over €376,000 for a variety of work on roads, bridges, tourism and economic developments, coastal protection reports, and assessments of Ballybunion Castle.
E.G. Pettit & Co were to be paid over €200,000 for a variety of consultant engineering works, including pollution control.
Colin Buchanan & Partners were paid €287,000 for forward planning studies for towns.
The hiring of consultants would be "curtailed" in 2003 and staff redeployed, he said. This was because the council would not be as busy on schemes and there would be "some spare capacity", the county manager, Mr Martin Nolan, said.