Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

When the Department of Education and Skills tenders for schools, whether today, last year or the year before, it seeks references from organisations that have previously worked on building schools. Different parishes or locations around the country or different ETBs could be involved. Deputy Catherine Murphy will be aware of one project in my constituency and in her county in respect of which references were granted and a person who was not short-listed was not given an opportunity to comment on the adverse reference they were given. They took the case to court and, because they were not given an opportunity to comment on what they felt was not a good recommendation from a previous employer, the tendering had to start again. What this demonstrates to me is that, as far as the public sector is concerned, the Department of Education and Skills has a budget, builds €600 million or €700 million worth of schools and has a practice of getting references from previous employers that engaged those contracts. I am now surprised to hear that while that happens on school projects, the Department of Health does not seem to know anything about it when it comes to the children's hospital or does not even know whether that practice exists in the public sector. It is happening, though.