Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 1 June 2017

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach

Procurement Issues: Minister of State at the Department of Finance

10:00 am

Photo of John McGuinnessJohn McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I shall not labour this point. I have been through an awful lot of the forms and read the feedback given. In many of the forms that I have examined the price is competitive and right but then management structures are measured, for example. The management structure is flat in an SME. When I worked in an SME I swept the floor of the warehouse, drove the van, managed people and gave a good service. In this sphere, the hierarchical structure of management is examined but that does not exist in the SME sector because SMEs cannot afford it for the price.