Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I do not get from where the Minister of State is coming. We are talking about the functions of the board. The Bill reads "The board shall" and lists what its functions will be, of which No. 5 is, "The Minister may enter into an arrangement for the provision of consultancy, advice and other services to the board". The Minister of State is proposing to take out the line, "Any contracts in respect of consultancy, advice or other services to the board shall be subject to public competition". I do not see the issue. We are saying that, if a contract is to be entered into by the board for the provision of consultancy, advice or any other service, it will be subject to public competition. My understanding is it would actually complement the public procurement process.

This is what the Minister of State said in the Seanad:

Amendment No. 57 is an amendment to section 56 in respect of the functions of the Data Governance Board to provide [that the Minister may] enter into an arrangement for the provision of consultancy, advice and any other services to the board. This is a standard provision given to most boards. I would expect that the skill sets each member will bring to the board will be sufficient for it to carry out its functions internally most of the time. However, I foresee circumstances where it would appropriate for the board to seek external advice and assistance on specific matters. We discussed this during a previous debate on the Bill. This particularly arises where the board is developing data management rules, procedures and standards and may need to draw on specialised, technical advice on certain matters. Nobody would want a situation where we tie the hands of the board so it could not get external advice. I propose to accept amendment 58 [for this reason].

Perhaps the Minister of State might explain about the procurement process. We are saying if the boards enter into contracts for the provision of consultancy, advice and other services, those contracts would be subject to public competition. If we were to take out that line, would we not be saying the contracts would not have to go through the public procurement process and would not have to be subject to public competition and that the board could actually go to one individual and enter into a contract with him or her privately without having a public competition?