Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

That is a good question: is procurement slow and when we measure its speed, how do we compare with other countries? It is essential that we have rapid procurement but that we also manage to get good value for money, that we obtain goods that are high quality and that we do so in a transparent way. We have to comply with European procurement law, first. Public procurement is all about fairness and giving everybody equal opportunity to compete. That means we do need to advertise and keep the competition open for a certain period. However, it should be done as quickly as possible within those constraints. That particularly applies now because we are in a period of inflation. If a procurement drags on for too long the price will have gone up and the requirements of the project may change over time. The last two years has been a really unusual period in procurement because of the pandemic. The normal rules of procurement were effectively suspended over the last two years. In a period where we had to obtain PPE in a hurry, for example, or anything related to the pandemic such as software to manage the vaccination roll out, while we tried to run competitive tenders they did not have to fit with the normal rules of procurement. We used whatever exemption clauses were available in an emergency. The procurement rules allow that when you have a general threat to public health, and when there is some kind of life and death emergency, you can speed up the rules. I meet every quarter with representatives of small businesses to ask them how they feel the procurement process is working for them and if they have any suggestions how it can be improved. We look at all aspects including Covid and Brexit procurement, disruption, inflation and so on. The issue of speed is not something that has arisen during that time. However, if there is someone the Deputy is representing or he has specific suggestions or an example of a procurement process that went very slowly, I would be happy to investigate if he sends details to my office.