Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 4 December 2012

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation

Forthcoming Competitiveness Council: Discussion with Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation

2:10 pm

Photo of Richard BrutonRichard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The European Union is facilitating it. It is also encouraging innovative procurement, something for which we are pressing very hard within our own system. The United Kingdom and the United States are more likely than we are to tender to solve a problem before the procurement stage is reached. That approach involves trying to find a company to solve a problem. That company submits a bid to design a solution to the problem and it is the solution that goes out to tender. That innovative procurement route gives the company in question a great chance to shape the solution and secure the business. It also allows innovative companies to attract reference sales into an Irish system that can then use them to open doors elsewhere. To be fair, the European Commission is pushing this. The European Union is not holding us back as we try to open better access routes to small and medium-sized enterprises. Obviously, a balance must be struck. Some would like every little bundle to be divided out. If that leads to inefficient or costly procurement, taxpayers will have to sacrifice the opportunity to improve the health service in order to support scattered tendering. The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform constantly has to strike a balance in bundling to the extent that good value is achieved and bundling to the degree that many small and medium-sized enterprises are removed from the process. To be fair, the National Procurement Service and Enterprise Ireland are working together to help businesses to form consortiums to access tenders designed to give good value for money, or to do so on their own. We need to ensure our small and medium-sized enterprises are in a position to bid for the business in a way that does not create extra costs for the taxpayer. That is perfectly possible. There are many innovative Irish businesses-----

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