Mr. Paul Quinn:

We are taking quite a number of steps, and the Minister already mentioned standardisation.

We are taking quite a number of measures in this space. The Minister mentioned standardisation. As we centralise our procurement further, we will have more consistency, since there will be fewer people running procurement processes. The work will be concentrated in a professional group of procurers. Making judgments on, for example, turnover and insurance requirements can cause problems for small to medium-sized enterprises, SMEs, but we will now be able to do this in a more consistent way.

We are working with bodies such as Enterprise Ireland and InterTrade Ireland to improve education for the SME sector. We held two events for SMEs in 2013. Approximately 1,400 SMEs attended each of the Dublin and Belfast sessions. A key issue for those who attended was their understanding of how public procurement worked. We need to do more in conjunction with the industry's representative associations, for example, the Small Firms Association, SFA, ISME, IBEC, etc., to improve education for SMEs so that they might understand how public procurement works and how they can engage with it. This year, we will make new investment through the Vote in new systems capabilities. We will seek to simplify how SMEs engage with our systems, as it can feel quite bureaucratic. The more we simplify engagement and make it easier, the more SMEs can compete, participate and, hopefully, be successful.

Competing in this context is a challenge for SMEs. However, good work is being done and sponsored by InterTrade Ireland and Enterprise Ireland in supporting SMEs in collaborating and forming consortiums. These positive actions will roll out in 2014, hopefully to good effect for SMEs in the marketplace.