Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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It might not be a case of predatory pricing but that a tenderer might be of such a scale that it can absorb losses in one cycle, thereby logically seeing off smaller entities that go out of business, to put it crudely. When the procurement office considers an abnormally low price, it might also consider the scale of the organisation tendering and see that it is a multinational, which can absorb this. I would be concerned if that were the only prism through which the office examined a bid. Someone who knows the industry might consider, for instance, what is charged for a whiteboard and say there is no way the bidder could come in that low. It seems insufficient to base the assessment of the pricing strategy on whether a big concern can deliver the service. It could be that it can but meanwhile it has caused damage elsewhere.