Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

That is interesting. We have heard for some time that there is an issue with the supply side. Under the prevailing conditions, the State procures for capital works mainly via private developers. Senior officials in the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment recently stated that bid-rigging has enabled companies to extract a higher price for work, given that rival bidders that had agreed to lose would submit inflated bids or not submit a bid at all. Does the Department accept the view that bid-rigging has led to further price inflation?