David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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I refer to that issue because there was correspondence earlier on procurement guidelines in regard to DIT. I am sorry I missed the correspondence, which we have probably published, that came from the Higher Education Authority, HEA, on the review it carried out in 2017. It sits with this because it comes up an awful lot, not just in the education sector, but in the health sector and other sectors as well where there is non-compliance. It talks about corporate procurement plans and the national public procurement policy framework introduced in 2005. Then there is a voluntary code of practice. It goes back to what we said last week. All this seems to be on a voluntary basis, not on a statutory basis. There are guidelines, but that is all they are. When there is non-compliance, apart from a note in the Comptroller and Auditor General's summary of the accounts, there is no sanction in place. Can we come back to this as part of the next periodic review?