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

I am struggling to find the point of the Office of Government Procurement in terms of the information we have learned. While I see the potential in such an office, I would have thought its remit would include all the things we have heard today that the OGP does not do, including providing direction on indemnification or in respect of assessing previous winners of State contracts for their carrying out of responsibilities in order that the office can advise other public bodies not to re-employ those who fail to live up to contracts or whatever. I do not see any of that having been done.

My questions are specifically on the Covid-19 period. I understand the OGP sits on a high-level task force and has a role advising the Government regarding procurement related to Covid-19. This procurement has over the past year made heavy use of the negotiated procedure, which appears to be no procedure at all. I seek clarification as to whether there is any obligation on the Government to publish contracts negotiated under this procedure, the timeframe for publication that is required and whether there are consequence if those timetables are not met,