Anthony Lawlor (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I mentioned earlier the exclusion of small businesses. This is one for ten printers, for an extension to a school. Both have similar employers liability of approximately €13 million and public liability. Whoever draws up the contracts appears to apply a similar standard of figures to exclude smaller companies. I would like to have an opportunity to speak to the National Procurement Service in respect of the framework agreements and the problems around it because it definitely excludes small companies. In the move to centralisation all that is wanted is big companies. People sometimes ask why not get five or six small companies to come together. The position is that they are all in competition with each other for the local business. How can they be brought together to make an agreement? We are seeking competition yet under the framework agreements we are excluding competition.

How many procurement managers are in the Office of Public Works? When a company gets through the hoops of preparing a tender document, how is the tender awarded? I notice consistently that 65% depends on price and 35% on something else. Within the education sector in my parish, the builders went to the wall before two schools were built. It appeared to me that the contract was judged on tender price rather than any other criteria, that the lowest possible price was chosen without a due diligence on the companies or whether the price was viable and sustainable. Consequently there is a delay in the children going into their new school as a result.