Ms Anne Stewart:

All our procedures are based on national legislation, the EU directives or a combination of both. They are followed to the letter of the law. Obviously, I cannot comment on what every contracting authority does to ensure it remains within those lines.

If they do not, they will fall foul of being challenged. This is probably one of the things the public buyers are most conscious of, because besides getting the tender to run, and because tenders can sometimes take some time to run since they are very complex, they move very cautiously to ensure they work within those procedures as they know that at any point in the process there could be a challenge launched. When a challenge is launched, it has detrimental effects to that particular agency. In the case of the likes Uisce Éireann, it could prevent sewers being jetted which would become a public health issue. It could perhaps prevent a contract being executed on time to get a good or a service in or to finish a construction project, etc. Public buyers are very cautious in ensuring that when they are running tender processes, they are working within those procedures to ensure they are compliant with the directives so they avoid a challenge at all costs. That is probably the primary concern of public buyers.