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

That is what the Commission's directives are seeking to provide for and that is what we are seeking to provide for in our discussions with the National Procurement Service. The role of Enterprise Ireland is to make sure we strike that balance. We are trying to encourage the breaking down of these prerequisites before tendering takes place. We have been trying to work with various Departments to ensure this happens. The committee could do a useful service in bringing in the various bodies to cross-examine them on their performance with regard to bundling. That would put a little extra pressure on them. Obviously, we need to be cost-effective in procurement. We also need to give businesses a chance to develop. I welcome the committee's support for this and it is something our officials are pushing. They are working with their counterparts in other Departments to try to facilitate and roll out innovative procurement and lower thresholds. We have a group working with a number of very big procurers. It is introducing companies to them and trying to get them into the supply chain. A great deal of interesting work is being done in this area. The data sometime reflect the fact that certain things are not produced in Ireland. It would be good to get data that are a little more granular. In time, we would like quotas for SME procurement to become a feature of the system. At present, the data are not sufficiently sophisticated to allow realistic quotas to be set. We should at least start to benchmark where we are in terms of SME procurement. I welcome the committee's work in that regard. There are opportunities in this area and, to be fair, the European Union is not standing in our way. The question of the division of the multi-annual financial framework is well beyond my pay grade.