Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The executive summary is that An Garda Síochána will outline where the college is going in the future and what space requirements are needed. Trust me, the college needs it. The volume of cars, for example, is a nightmare. I accept that the college needs to expand. As a constituency Deputy this is positive and I would be very supportive of it. Having said that I do not believe the community will tolerate the golf club going. The golf club will remain. I know the members there and they are flexible enough with regard to the college requirements to see how things can be assuaged to facilitate everything. I would encourage An Garda Síochána to work in that spirit.

There is a lot of talk about procurement and issues that were regularised - for want of a better phrase - in respect of Templemore coming under public procurement rules and so on. I understand this. Nobody is above public procurement rules, despite what some of my colleagues in Tipperary may have said. I will not go into that. Within the procurement rules for small amounts of goods and services, I have a question about some components coming under certain thresholds with regard to using three local suppliers. Would the witnesses consider looking at the process by which services and goods are bundled together to make larger contracts and if this is always the right thing to do? I know the public procurement guidelines quite well and in that scenario, there is flexibility for smaller amounts of goods and services, especially for perishable goods, to be sourced locally having had three tenders. I ask An Garda Síochána to look at this in the spirit of co-operation, but obviously within the rules.