Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We would already be dealing with an intermediary. It is the start of the problem. We are now beginning to establish that the Department of Health and HSE does not negotiate and talk turkey on a one-to-one basis with individual companies. We are operating through a federation or committee that the manufacturers have put together to speak to representatives. It will hold an industry line.

I am shocked at the amount of money. Do the witnesses understand that this intermediary group is preventing them from talking turkey with the individual companies whose products they are buying? We will move on. I ask the witnesses to change their procedure and not to negotiate with intermediaries any more, but deal with the companies whose products they are buying.