It has emerged that the total spend on consultants by Irish Water will have exceeded 80 million euro by next year.
The utility's senior management team will answer questions from the Dail's environment committee this afternoon.
That meeting was arranged following uproar after it was revealed last week that 50 million euro had already been spent on various consultancies.
However briefing papers issued ahead of this afternoon's meeting now reveal the 50 million figure is not the end of the spend, and at least a further 30 million euro is earmarked for consultants by March of next year.
Junior Finance Minister Brian Hayes says the government will insist on transparency in all Irish Water spending.
“What the government wants to see in all of this is absolute transparency on the expenditure costs involved and the justification of that” he said.
“And crucially, being very frank about it, the value for money that is derived to the new agency as a consequence of that spending” he added.
