Mr. Paul Quinn:

I am saying the net picture for Ireland is good as there is an open procurement regime. I will speak a little more about what we are doing about that. I have already mentioned Circular 10/14 and there are a number of various initiatives to try to help not only from a policy perspective but to enable small and medium enterprises, SMEs, by breaking larger contracts into lots by reducing turnover requirements and by being flexible in not requiring SMEs to submit lots of documentation in advance. These are good initiatives as well but on the other side we are doing much with building awareness and education within the SME community. We work very closely with Enterprise Ireland and Intertrade Ireland. Some Deputies were able to attend the event we had in October or early November in Citywest which had approximately 700 suppliers in attendance. That was great as those attending could meet people from our office and other sectoral organisations in the new structures. We are doing much in helping awareness and education in Irish companies.