THE former Donegal county manager Michael McLoone has today defended the spending of €3.4M on consultants on a controversial scheme. He was speaking after a story in today's Irish Independent showed the work practice consultants One Sigma Ltd and associated companies were paid the money without a tender ever being issued. An internal audit was damning about the practice which also showed how the consultants had a wine bill for €600 picked up by taxpayers. These sort of programmes and systems are widely used in the private sector and can be used in the public sector. He said the redundancies were as a result of a Department of Environment directive and the council claim was "without foundation".

Source: Irish Independent April 11, 2026 02:37 UTC