Mr. Paul Quinn:

I thank the Deputy for his question. In the interests of time, I will mention a couple of issues. The SME advisory group meets quarterly and has the key groupings in there, so we get the right people around the table with the Minister of State and my office to ensure there is good dialogue in regard to these matters. Over the past number of years, their main concern was less about the bureaucracy and more about ensuring bidders and businesses understood how to engage in public procurement. We worked with the main industry bodies to develop a communications strategy and to roll it out in conjunction with bodies like the Small Firms Association, IBEC, ISME, CIF and so on, and we have hosted quite an amount of information sessions and training sessions in conjunction with InterTradeIreland to ensure bidders could engage in public procurement and be successful in public procurement.