The expenditure by Transport Minister Noel Dempsey of over €2m on consultants, including €1.2m on PR consultants, this year alone, represents an outrageous waste of taxpayers’ money. Last year, 2007, the expenditure on PR advisors was €513,000 for 12 months. This year the expenditure until the end of July 2008 was €1.2m – more than double the expenditure for the whole of 2007.

The figures were released to me recently in a reply to a Parliamentary Question.

At a time when every Department is being required to trim their budgets, Noel Dempsey has been frittering away millions on spin doctors and media consultants, spending money like it’s going out of fashion.

In the meantime, thanks to lack of money, our children are learning in some of the most overcrowded classrooms in Europe, in our hospitals, there is an embargo in place for the recruitment of the likes of speech therapists and paediatric nurses, while across the board, a variety of agencies are being required to merge or to fold back into Govt Departments thanks to cutbacks.

Much of the PR money was splurged on the promotion of Transport 21. The sad fact now however, is that many of the projects included under the provisions of Transport 21 will themselves end up being scrapped as a result of the shortfall in exchequer receipts. We have already been warned that elements such as Metro North, the Western Rail Corridor are likely to deferred indefinitely, and other projects are likely to follow suit.

It is extraordinary that in these circumstances, Mr Dempsey could continue to squander taxpayers money on promoting himself and his Department.