Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

On the issue of procurement, the report we published in July references challenges with procurement. In fact, there are some barriers to people offering themselves up in that competitive tension, which is required. Some of the reforms we will introduce will relate to procurement and how to have a more collaborative model to attract more domestic activity and some of the international contractors who have not been engaged before. The committee will see some of the reforms advance from that. We have the capital works management framework, which sets out the contractual provisions, guidance material and technical procedures regarding all aspects of the project pipeline. There are extensive governance arrangements through each stage of the project pipeline as it is commenced in the area of design right the way through. That is covered in the infrastructure guidelines as well. We have significant internal and external ongoing oversight projects as they advance. Nevertheless, the Senator is right. Some of the lessons from the children's hospital were that not everything had been captured in the initial phase, and that was a contributory factor to how the costs went out of control. Adjustment to this in the interests of competition would be important and that is something we are considering in the context of the reforms we will advance.

Collective bargaining is a policy responsibility of the Department of enterprise. Obviously, the Government's position on collective bargaining is informed by what we do across the economy. I can come back with a more detailed response on that.