Consultants for North Quays have their contract more than doubled amid €17 million payments
The North Quays project began in 2018.
Seán Dobbs, a senior engineer for Waterford City and County Council, told councillors at a recent meeting that the council were “closely monitoring” the consultancy fees being paid by the council for the North Quays development.
It was Cllr Dónal Barry who first asked about the consultancy fees at the meeting.
He said, “The consultancy fees in 2024 were massive. Have they been brought under control now?”
In a local government audit report for 2024, the cumulative payment to the consultants amounted to €17.4 million at year-end. The year before that, 2023, that number was €24 million.
Mr Dobbs told the council, “We have an ongoing relationship with our consultants over in London.”
Initially, consultants were supposed to be on a four-year contract, but, according to Mr Dobbs, “we’re now looking at a 10-year consultant contract.”
He explained that the reason for this was, “The scope has expanded since the contract was signed back in 2018. It's been over double the length. A huge amount of resources go into it.”
The consultant’s contract covers initial concept, planning, design, procurement, and construction.
He said: “Just on site alone our consultants during the peak construction we had probably 15 people working full-time on site, so it was like a small business over there. An awful lot of resources go into it.”
When asked whether it was Waterford City and County Council or the consultant who paid for these 15 employees, a spokesperson for Waterford City and County Council later confirmed that “Waterford City and County Council has a consultancy contract in place with Roughan & O'Donovan (ROD) to cover specified services.”
Mr Dobbs explained that there are a lot of “specialist consultants” due to the complex nature of the development.
He said: “I’d say we’re up to a quarter of a million person-hours have been worked on the contract to date.”
