Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
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I will take the Chairman's question on print managed contracts first. It was interesting that the Chairman approached the issue from the perspective of the local business but not from the perspective of the public purse. It seems that if we are to make the savings on procurement, we must become a good deal more strategic and ensure we implement what we claim we will implement. The Chairman referred to print managed contracts. This is something the national procurement service negotiated under my Department. A total of five companies won that contract, three of which were Irish small or medium-sized enterprises and two of which were US multinationals. We put it to everyone in the Irish public sector that the framework we had negotiated on exceptional prices should be used.

One example is the savings that Dublin City Council has managed to realise as a result of a print managed contract. What is a print managed contract? A print managed contract is an alternative to the old fashioned way of having photocopiers everywhere which we own and every time they spew out paper, we pay for it. Under this method, we give a contract to a company to run printing in that aspect of the public sector. Dublin City Council had savings of 60% over a two year period by doing this. We will replicate this in every other aspect of the Irish public sector. If that means some local companies miss out, I am sorry. However, if the Chairman is telling me that he wants to extract savings on procurement as part of his role as Chairman of the Committee of Public Accounts, then this is the brave new world we are entering. Moaning and groaning about local businesses here, there and everywhere will not achieve the targets we want to achieve. The Chairman cannot have it both ways. There is a reason I am being so potentially belligerent on this point.