Derek Nolan (Galway West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Mr. O'Daly is conflating a little. No procurement process of any kind says that costs are the be-all and end-all. Often, in procurement processes, it is not the lowest price that will win. However, cost is a factor based on a number of matters. First, there would be competence, record of experience in the business, number of projects done and completed on time, expertise, relationship, trustworthiness and customer satisfaction, and then cost. These all would come into one's procurement process.

I totally understand that Mr. O'Daly will not send a first year junior counsel into the Supreme Court to defend a constitutional case. There are different levels. Experience, etc., comes into it. I am struck by the system in place. I am not trying to put forward the view that solicitors all should be offering to work for the minimum wage but, if one does not have a situation where 2,300 qualified, 800 applied for legal work and 300 of those get legal work, those in the broader pool can say that they can do the job a particular barrister has done just as well and cheaper, they will prove it and do so, and they should be able to compete on that basis to get the work.