Mr. Michael O'Brien:

My presentation will be a little more political. The O'Brien Press was founded 40 years ago. We are the biggest independent publisher, but that does not mean we are big; we are quite small. We have 700 titles in print, we employ 20 people and we create quite a lot of spin-off jobs among writers, artists, designers, editors, distributors and booksellers. I am also the vice president of Publishing Ireland, which is our publishing organisation.

I will preface what I have to say by noting that the current Government had a terrible job to do after the country was totally ruined by the previous Administration. A lot of very difficult decisions had to be made, and some of the things it did were admirable. One thing that came out of the Government's policy is the main thing they keep talking about, which is creating more jobs - jobs, jobs, jobs. It is in that context I make my presentation. The big disaster with regard to the proposal for a national library consortium for tendering is that the Government has now created a scheme to destroy jobs. This was never contemplated and it is very shameful. It sounds like a good idea - a national procurement policy for the whole State - but in fact, it was not thought out. I even began to wonder where the idea came from. Was it a secret deal with the troika? Where did the idea come from, an idea that runs counter to the Government policy of creating jobs?

Here are the negatives. First, it completely undermines local democracy. Where are the county councils, which are elected to look after their areas? County librarians did not ask for this and, having spoken to some of them, I know they were not properly consulted. The approach being taken is destroying local community bookshops, which are important to communities both culturally and economically. One example is Hanna's, a fifth generation bookshop in my area. The scheme has damaged book publishers such as The O'Brien Press, but it will also damage the writers, artists, distributors and printers downstream. That is the chain effect of this type of action.

The system has been designed perfectly for two very large British conglomerates, Bertram Books and Gardners, which are library suppliers. To give members some background information, before the British Government adopted a national procurement policy-----