Ms Róisín Fleming:

I will give an example in respect of a stationery contract in regard to predatory pricing. We had a long meeting with Mr. Paul Quinn from the Office of Government Procurement and asked him about his predatory pricing policy because when we spoke to the office in the past we were told that the only thing which triggers an investigation of predatory pricing is a price difference between competitors of 10% to 25%. We explained that was a difficulty because if more than one company is engaged in predatory pricing, that safeguard goes out the window.

When we asked about the stationery contract, the office explained it had investigated predatory pricing at the framework stage. However, the problem is that the contract is not awarded at the framework stage, but rather at the mini-competition stage. At that stage, during which anybody participating in it can only go below the initial quoted price, there was no investigation of predatory pricing.

Some of the largest companies in Europe are involved. I spoke about Office Depot. It has since merged with Staples and is now a company with a turnover of €34 billion. One has to remember that Office Depot supplies small companies throughout Ireland. Through the Office of Government Procurement it has been given the opportunity to take all of its suppliers away and go directly to the Government, cutting out an entire layer of small businesses.