Met Éireann spends almost €500,000 on planning consultants in 18 months
has spent almost €500,000 on private planning consultants in the last 18 months, new figures show.
Engineering consultancy company O'Connor Sutton Cronin (OCSC) was paid a total of €475,671 after the start of 2024 to advise on the expansion of the State's weather radar network.
It is the largest spend on a single planning consultancy company by the
Department of Housing
, which oversees Met Éireann, over the last five years.
The figures, released in response to a parliamentary question by
Sinn Féin
TD
Thomas Gould
, also show the department spent more than €1.4 million on private planning consultants since 2020.
READ MORE
The highest amount was spent last year, €450,937, with the bulk of this made up by €336,934 which went to OCSC. A further €138,737 was paid to the company earlier this year.
Met Éireann said it appointed OCSC to 'provide consultative expertise for the preliminary design and planning phase of a programme to expand the current weather radar network for Ireland'.
The company provides expertise from various professionals including a project director, architect, civil engineer, structural engineer, mechanical and electrical engineer, quantity surveyor, environmental officer, planner, archaeologist and fire and safety officer.
Met Éireann said the expansion project will see the number of radars across the country increase from two to seven, and represents a 'significant infrastructural and scientific investment'.
It is likely another huge spend will be paid out this year
—
Thomas Gould, Sinn Féin TD
The expanded network is needed 'to ensure optimal rainfall monitoring coverage and improving the detection of severe rainfall events that are expected to become more frequent in a warming climate', the forecaster said.
The project is still in a development phase and no new equipment has been bought with this money. Met Éireann could not say how much would be spent on the project in total.
The next highest spend on one single planning consultant by the department was €110,467 with Brendan McGrath and Associates, an urban and rural planning consultant based in Co Clare.
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The third highest spend was €110,103 with Tobin Consulting Engineers in 2020. Corresponding procurement logs show this related to a report on the rural water sector.
Commenting on the figures, Mr Gould said it showed the State was 'wasting our money and failing to provide real decent jobs'.
He said additional staff should be recruited to carry out such work rather than paying for private firms, the cost of which 'has increased substantially from under €60,000 in 2019 to almost €500,000 last year". He added: 'Given that we are just over halfway through 2025 and a quarter of a million has been spent, it is likely another huge spend will be paid out this year.'
He called on the Minister to publish a value-for-money assessment of the use of private firms and a full list of the work they have undertaken.
Mr Gould said: 'I am sick of seeing money wasted in the middle of a housing crisis and spent on everything except building the homes that people so desperately need.'
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