Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Can I just ask one question and then I will come back to Deputy Catherine Murphy? We hear every day of the week that companies cannot get contracts from public bodies in Ireland because their turnover in the previous few years was not at a certain level. The officials will be familiar with that. It is a very basic question.

The Department is proposing to sign a contract with a company which does not even exist yet but will be incorporated in some solicitor's firm which, by definition, will have no previous business or turnover by which it can be judged. It may be judged based on who its shareholders are, but the company, if it has no turnover, would not be eligible to apply to build a single local authority house in Ireland because it would not meet the previous turnover requirement. That is a basic thing that public bodies do. How is it that a company that does not exist is likely to get this award with no previous turnover? The witnesses may think that a strange question but it is one the public will ask. I will park that question and the witnesses can come back to it.