Matt Shanahan (Waterford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Thank you for your confident stewardship of the committee this morning, Chair. I also thank the officials from the Department of Education and Skills for their attendance this morning. I wish to ask Mr. Ó Foghlú about the national tendering he mentioned. I am somebody who is quite close to SMEs in the country and I am disappointed that this is going to go to a national tender because it will exclude many smaller businesses who would be close to school governance who would be well able to supply schools. Could he give me any confidence that this tender will be looked at with a view to making sure that as many people as possible can benefit locally? At the end of the day this is public money and we do not want to give overarching support to international companies at the cost of local jobs.