Mr. Seamus McCarthy:

Again, given the unusual nature of the gallery having a Vote, it is required to follow the requirements of Circular 40/02, one of which is reporting to my office if contracts have been procured without a competitive process. Moreover, it submits the return to us. I believe that in previous years, in our overall review of procurement without a competitive process, we have reported that the gallery had not been procuring certain contracts. According to my notes to hand, legal, internal audit and IT consultancy had not been tendered and may have been reported to us but then there were some other contracts that we have raised with the gallery. Obviously, the chairman has stated it is now moving towards putting those contracts out to tender and I certainly welcome that.