Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I will touch on something again where people might have been overly defensive. I am trying to get a sense of the protections in place when non-competitive procurement needs to take place. No one knows better than the Department of Education and Skills how to have a stringent procurement process. I was a member of ETB boards of management for several years and the procurement rules that the Department had in place were the bane of our lives. We all accept that, because of an urgent requirement, situations will arise where a non-competitive process needs to be employed. What protections are in place to protect not only the Department, but also the taxpayer and the education system?