John Perry (Sligo-North Leitrim, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

In another role I have dealt with a supplying a school and I know it is very important. Mr. Quinn was very helpful about that issue with regard to clarification. While I respect small businesses, it is very hard to keep everybody happy when one is dealing with €9 billion of procurement contracts, no matter how one does it. There is an issue of supply and demand and the economy of scale with 4.5 million people. This is one of the most persistent issues at the moment. Procurement in general is a bigger issue but we are dealing here mainly with the small firms issue, while this morning we dealt with supplying schools. Would it be possible to issue a letter of clarification from the Department of Education and Skills to schools, stating that the principal officer of the school would do this without ambiguity or fear of repercussion afterwards? This is a very important point because I know of several schools at the moment that are very happy to sign 16/13 on value for money and on quality. It would defuse much of the confusion that prevails at the moment if clarification could be issued from the Department. Every national school I know of operates by a circular. They get a circular from the Department indicating that they are entitled to purchase following the 16/13 criteria and they can deal with their local suppliers. Many of them prefer to do so. The debate today would be resolved through that.