Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 2 February 2022
Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach
Estimates for Public Services
Vote 11 - Public Expenditure and Reform (Revised)
Vote 12 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances (Revised)
Vote 14 - State Laboratory (Revised)
Vote 15 - Secret Service (Revised)
Vote 17 - Public Appointments Service (Revised)
Vote 18 - National Shared Services Office (Revised)
Vote 19 - Office of the Ombudsman (Revised)
Vote 39 - Office of Government Procurement (Revised)
Vote 43 - Office of the Government Chief Information Officer (Revised)
Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party) | Oireachtas source
For a start, the question is, does one have to use the frameworks for legal services or do Departments have to use the centrally agreed arrangements. It is Government policy - it is a decision of Government - that all divisions of Government need to use the available arrangements where they apply.
There are frameworks for legal services. There are some that are specialist and niche covering particular areas and then there are general frameworks. One is meant to draw on those unless there are exceptional circumstances where one can show why one should not use them.
I think the Chairman's specific question is, is it possible to negotiate outside of that to get better terms. Is that what the Chairman is asking, where there is a particular circumstance that this would apply?
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