John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I wish to bring to the Minister of State's attention the difficulties small and medium enterprises, SMEs, have regarding the procurement issue. I have received numerous complaints from those in the SME sector who find it extremely difficult to bear the cost of the whole procurement process and they also face stiff competition from companies that are much bigger than them. As a result of that many smaller companies throughout the regions are facing the possibility of losing staff due to having to downsize because they have lost a particular portion of Government business. In some cases where small businesses have concentrated on getting Government business, they will be put out of business because they failed in some way in the course of the procurement process. Can the Minister of State bring about appropriate changes in the legislation, or in how the procurement process works, to give some sort of local advantage to the SME sector, whether it be by increasing the threshold or giving some preference, by way of acknowledgement for the services that the sector has given over the years, on a particular tender where that tender is competitive so that those in the sector will not lose out in terms of turnover or performance to the bigger companies? This issue runs across the cleaning sector. I discussed it with those who provide Rentokil services and they had the same difficulty. I also discussed it with a drain cleaning services company in Carlow. What has been happening is that the bigger turnover of the bigger company was winning the contract and eventually, at a far reduced rate and without much margin, the original contractor was being asked to do the job by the larger company. There are shortcomings in the way we approach the whole procurement issue. I would like to see it addressed to give an advantage to the SME sector without the process losing out and with us still getting value for money.