Ms Mary Fallon:

My contribution will be very short as Mr. O’Brien has discussed the book side of the industry. I am from Alan Hanna’s bookshop in Rathmines and my children are the fourth generation of a long-established bookselling family in Dublin. In this time, we have provided many local jobs and contributed substantially to the local economy through wages, rates, taxes, etc. I live in fear of this small business closing only on account of public procurement. We have been library suppliers for nearly 40 years and under tender to Dublin city libraries since 2000.

In 2012, all the Dublin local authorities - Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, Fingal, Dublin City and South Dublin - put the library book supply out to tender. Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council awarded €595,000 of the total €800,000 to a British company. In effect, this exported at least six jobs as the Booksellers Association of Great Britain and Ireland reckons €100,000 in book spend is equal to 1.5 jobs. Greene’s bookshop closed on account of this procurement tender going to Britain, with the loss of six jobs. The Collins bookshop in Cork also closed completely with four jobs lost. I lost 1.5 jobs. The girl who remains in my shop lives in south County Dublin and gets €100 a week in subsidised wages. If I had got a bit of that contract, she would be working a five-day week. Where is the saving to the Government? When I speak to politicians about this, they tell me it is not their place and I need to write to the Office of Public Procurement. When I do, it informs me it is all down to EU legislation, which it is not. The EU legislation on procurement states cultural and social policies may be taken into account when dealing with contracts.

Dublin City Council recently tendered its library contract. I have been supplying Irish-published books to Dublin City Council since I was a teenager. I lost the contract, however. No one has the experience I have in this area. One might think the library sends us an order and we send out a box of books. This is not how it happens. I source the books by trawling newspapers, periodicals, television and the Internet for small publications from the poet who walks in from the street to every other publisher. This tender had 65% for marks on price alone with only 35% on service. Service is a significant job in supplying books. We source the books and then the library makes a choice from the list we compile.

They do not make the choice of books and order them; we do. We cover the books with laminate and security-tag, stamp and label them as part of the service provided. Next year I will lose at least one further job and nobody cares. I have a girl who has been working with me for 35 years. What do I say to her - that the Government does not care? We could take the Scottish route, where they take into account local people. The Scottish Act provides that an authority has a duty to act with a view to securing improvements for the economic, social and environmental wellbeing of the authority's area. We could adopt the French approach whereby they purchase their books within a 30 km radius. Why do we have to go to a national consortium when it knocks every one of us out of the supply chain? I am passionate about this issue as I am going to lose this business.