Patricia Stephenson (Social Democrats)

I have a question about procurement. I know we have had a few high-profile examples, such as the national children's hospital, of where procurement seems to have fallen between the cracks or has not worked effectively. I would be interested to hear of the reforms the Minister suggests putting in place in the area of procurement so that we avoid the pitfalls of the past or present and ensure better value for money. I do not see any particular procurement coming out from the NDP. I think that is the piece we are maybe missing to avoid this kind of pay-as-you-go approach we have seen in the past. That is where we got to with BAM, where it could put in the change orders in, that would be delivered and the budget would just go up and up. Linked to that, how is the Department responsible for tendering what guidance will be provided on creating competition for suppliers, incentivising value for money and fostering a competitive dialogue with suppliers? It is my understanding that when it came to the national children's hospital, there was not really a proper design in place and an exemption was provided because it was considered a critical capital build project. How can we avoid that in the future? That is my first question.

I have another question on the role of the auditing team. I know we do audits after the fact, but is there a process whereby we could have auditors in place as projects are ongoing for greater internal support around project management? That could be an effective way to have better control of ongoing infrastructure projects.

We had a briefing this morning from ICTU about the right to collective bargaining. Something came up about how private sector companies in Ireland that are responsible for running public contracts are in some instances not allowing people to be in unions. Would the Department be willing to make a commitment that anyone implementing a public contract ensures unionisation and the right to collective bargaining?