Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 3 October 2013

Public Accounts Committee

2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 7 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances
Vote 42 - Office of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform
Chapter 6 - Financial Commitments under Public Private Partnerships
Chapter 12 - Vote Accounting
Chapter 13 - Procurement without a Competitive Process

12:10 pm

Photo of Mary Lou McDonaldMary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I wish to ask about procurement. I will be parochial and state the Grangegorman project, which is in the heart of the inner-city in my constituency, offered a real promise to allow local businesses and small and medium enterprises to tender, bid for and obtain work in this complex and large project. The feedback I have, notwithstanding circular 10/10 to which Mr. Watt referred, is that small operators are still precluded because of the guidelines to make a bid or a tender for all of the works on this site. To put it into context, it is a project in the inner-city so the adjacent areas, with which I know Mr. Watt is familiar, have many dilemmas such as high long-term unemployment. There is huge disappointment among local firms and providers that they have been written out of the scenario. The project was billed as a stimulus measure, but also as an opportunity for a level of local regeneration and involvement but this has not materialised.

Comments

No comments

Log in or join to post a public comment.