Ms Caron McCaffrey:

Approximately 95% of the food purchased, particularly for the tuck shops, comes from a central supply in place through an Office of Government Procurement contract. Some purchasing does take place locally for approximately 5% of all of the items bought for the tuck shop, such as newspapers, fresh fruit, birthday cards and such items. We are bound by procurement rules and we do go to tender on those contracts and draw from an approved supplier list. With regard to the new purchase requisitioning system, effectively what happens at present is that food is ordered locally. The new system will mean the order is generated locally but it will be approved centrally before that order is placed. The order will also be from an approved catalogue. The Deputy pointed to issues in the Dóchas Centre, which constitutes one 20th of our overall catering budget so we need to keep it in context. There will be much tighter arrangements on buying from approved product lists and people will not have the ability to buy off-contract items without approval from headquarters.