Mr. Tom Parlon:

There would be considerable cost-benefit advantages of doing a block of perhaps one or two dozen or 100 local authority houses under public procurement. The big debate lately has been around quality and price. As has been the case, unfortunately, in much public tendering, the lowest price wins all and that is at the expense of quality. As Mr. Manley has said, that is an issue that is being discussed and new proposals are coming forward from the Office of Government Procurement. It is a tricky area because price is very determinable. If someone says he or she will do a job for €150,000, the quality can be difficult to ascertain. We support quality being an important criteria in Government procurement.