Under International Auditing Standards there is an obligation to have an independent assessment of the work of the Evaluation and Audit Unit of the Department carried out every five years. This is an external quality assurance requirement. Ernst and Young undertook this assessment work in 2018 and a payment of €15,990 was made to the company by the Department last year.
My Department also made a payment to Deloitte of €8,034 in 2016. This related to ICT services supplied by IBM via Deloitte, which was acting as a reseller in the provision of the service.