Mr. James Deane:

We were formed to look at the procurement function across Government and we spend a lot of money across Government. We estimate that to be in the order of €12 billion, which will significantly increase in the next number of years with the capital investment programme. In terms of what we have put in place, we have a national public procurement policy framework, which sets out the overarching policy for public procurement in Ireland. As well as that we put in procurement solutions such as framework agreements which the Garda is using in this case as well. What we are doing is promoting best practice and we believe that, over time, all the issues the Deputy is mentioning such as proper planning, having contract registers and a corporate procurement plan in place, will see improved practices in place. We are working with our public bodies on highlighting where they can bring in improvements. It is a process. We are working with the Garda in this regard. We worked with it on 16 projects last year and I believe another 16 projects are planned for this year. It is buying a lot of its IT equipment through us also such as PCs, laptops, firewalls and so on. While there is no sanction, as the Deputy is aware, under the Ministers and Secretaries Acts, the Accounting Officer is responsible for their expenditure but in putting the spotlight on the procurement function and giving supports to public bodies as well, we hope over time that all these-----