Ms Clare McGrath:

The office would not be directly involved with the semi-State company. When I alluded to a figure of 95%, I was referring to Ireland and all European Union advertised competitions for procurement, rather than procurement solely in respect of the OPW. We recently answered a parliamentary question on contracts placed by the National Procurement Service in which we indicated that 4% of such contracts went outside the island.

In terms of trends, I understand from the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation via Enterprise Ireland that the latter works closely with the small and medium enterprise sector to facilitate SMEs in participating in competitions in other jurisdictions. While I do not have figures with me, I understand Enterprise Ireland has provided valuable assistance for companies seeking to compete in other jurisdictions by leveraging their ability to win competitions elsewhere. I do not have a comparative analysis in respect of other jurisdictions, although I will suggest to the National Procurement Service that it consider this issue with a view to being able to identify trends, as requested by the Deputy.

On rents, we have something in the order of 450 leases, a small number of which are upward only rents. We seek to leverage our covenant in relation to this and we have been able to optimise the position where reviews have been done. I do not have figures on the number of upward only rents in cases where the Office of Public Works is the landlord, although I can revert to the joint committee on the question. I am not sure if the Deputy is asking how many of the tenants in such leases have expressed to the OPW that they have a difficulty with their rents. I take his point about the case in County Donegal and I will revert to the joint committee on OPW leases. As members will be aware, upward only rent clauses have been illegal for the past couple of years, which means no new leases can be created with such clauses. This is an historical issue.