Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I again welcome the chairman. Her organisation is one of the hidden assets to this country, particularly regarding the work it does on heritage sites and State buildings. While I have local arguments with the Office of Public Works on the manner in which it deals with flooding, that is a matter for another day. On heritage services, I have a non-construction-related question. Does the Office of Public Works advertise catering contracts regularly for the various heritage sites? If a person wishes to become a service supplier to a heritage site, whom should he or she contact?

The use of the short form of contract in respect of maintenance works was a welcome initiative. However, the OPW appears to hide it under a bushel to an extent. How many of the 225 companies to which Ms McGrath referred have left that list over the years? Is there much churn of companies on the list? What are the turnover levels for companies in this regard? As Ms McGrath made reference to eligibility being based on turnover levels, what are they and do they depend on the kind of work companies would be doing? Where does one apply and can details be found on the OPW website? On the issue of payment within 15 calendar days, is the OPW fully in compliance with that measure at present?

As for non-capital areas, one of the frustrations experienced by this joint committee's predecessor was that it heard a presentation from representatives of the Irish printing industry during the lifetime of the previous Dáil. They were of the opinion that they were getting a very raw deal in the manner in which State contracts were awarded for printing. The meeting took place at around the time of a referendum in 2008, when one of the referendum information booklets was published in Spain. It was because of the manner in which contract in Ireland are not broken up. The State tends to tender for big contracts and certainly at that point, did not tend to break them up into smaller chunks to facilitate smaller companies, which would qualify under all of those criteria. Has this situation improved and has consideration been given to breaking big contracts, including capital contracts, into smaller chunks to enable smaller companies to get involved?