Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chairman and Deputy Donnelly. First, I reiterate, and I did not make this up, the legal advice is that the requirement is that we must go out to tender and it must be a competitive procurement process. What I am doing initially is expanding the service. These regions that do not currently have a service will get one. We want to expand the service there and we have engaged with them. It is important to say that given the focus we will have on quality, I am confident that local providers should have no difficulty in putting forward a good bid. I want to be very clear on that.

There is a multifaceted approach to our employment services with the three different strands of Intreo, JobPath and the LES. That is important to say. This is absolutely not a drive to reduce costs. I want to be clear on that. The focus is on expanding the quality of the provision in the best interests of clients to achieve better outcomes.

Some provide a really good service, but I will be very straight here and say there are some who do not. We know that and let us call a spade a spade. We want to work with them and improve the service users get.

As I said, the legal advice is that we have to go out to tender under public procurement. We are designing a process that awards, primarily, more marks for quality and a proven track record. Cost will be a very small, limited component of this request for tender. It is important to make that very clear. However, we are in the situation where we have been advised very clearly that we have to do this through the public procurement process.