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

It is not the taxpayers' interest either that jobs are lost in small firms and micro-enterprises, perhaps in rural areas. As the Department calculates what is in the best interests of the State and the taxpayer, which is entirely legitimate, there must be a calculation also of potential offsetting measures such as the loss of jobs, which is costly. Having additional people on the live register is extreme costly.

This is an enormous amount of data, and I am not gainsaying this. This is not a simple matter. The Department is balancing using moneys smartly in every dimension and I understand this, but it is very troubling that there is such consistent criticism from the small and micro enterprises the Department purports to support, protect and facilitate. They state it is not working, particularly the aggregation of contracts. They tell us it is not that they do not know how to go about creating a consortium, it is just it is not a realistic ask or doable in business terms, not least because to bid in this manner one needs one entity to be the lead entity and take on all of the risk.