Ms Isolde Goggin:

We are very aware of the difficulties that smaller companies face when they try to get access to tenders in general, not just build tenders, and including larger tenders. We produced some guidance a couple of years ago, which I can send on to the committee, about how smaller companies might be able to group together to make bids for such tenders. There had been a concern that such a grouping of smaller competitors getting together might be seen as anti-competitive. If they are in a situation where they are facing some very large competitors, then it simply is not an issue.

The Deputy's query would come under our advocacy role rather than an enforcement role, where we want to promote competition. We do not have any role or expertise in determining what the criteria should be for getting access to those tenders. These are technical issues that belong to the tendering bodies. We certainly would encourage procuring bodies to make the field as wide as possible to encourage companies that are capable of providing the service to do so, and to avoid putting any barriers in their way that would stop them from doing so.

We do not have a view on the issue of whether companies currently defending court cases should be allowed to tender. That would be a matter for the courts and for the tendering agencies themselves to decide.