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

I will conclude with a few points relating to an article on business in which Mr. Peter Brennan, an expert in this area, references that SMEs winning tenders starts to decrease above the value of €60,000. He also references the loss of jobs as a result of an etendering process within a local area and makes the point that the Oireachtas has never carried out a critical review of the process and that the annual report on procurement has not been debated in the Houses.

In regard to levelling the tender playing field he makes six points, which appear to me to be simple enough. For example, he suggests that the powers of the regulator to separate procurement policy and operational guidelines be put on a statutory footing; that the SME sector and businesses generally be provided with assistance to help them understand the process and to conduct an appeal and understand the appeals system; and that companies that win contracts be supported and trained up by Enterprise Ireland, thus giving them an input into a broader market, although the thresholds then come into question, including as mentioned earlier the €25,000 versus €50,000 threshold. He also recommends that all multi-party framework agreements should be divided into lots, the value of the lots should be as small as is practical and routine contracts under €50,000 should not be procured by use of framework agreements.

Finally, all contracting authorities should be required to use a reusable self-declaration form in terms of the etender process. The steps to be taken to make it possible for SMEs to be in a position to win more of the €9 billion available are easy. I refer to the point made by Senator Horkan. The procurement process should be subject to a debate in the Dáil and such a debate would be very worthwhile.

I invited the Minister of State to Carlow and Kilkenny and I hope he will take up the offer because it is worthwhile to do roadshows. They are about information. Perhaps the section should consider making a presentation to the broader membership of the Dáil and Seanad, facilitated by the office of the Minister of State, in the audiovisual room.