Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 8 February 2023
Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach
Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 11 - Public Expenditure and Reform (Revised)
Vote 12 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances (Revised)
Vote 14 - State Laboratory (Revised)
Vote 15 - Secret Service (Revised)
Vote 17 - Public Appointments Service (Revised)
Vote 18 - National Shared Services Office (Revised)
Vote 19 - Office of the Ombudsman (Revised)
Vote 39 - Office of Government Procurement (Revised)
Vote 43 - Office of the Government Chief Information Officer (Revised)
Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)
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We have a role in forming European law at the Council. In addition, we examine how other jurisdictions cope with European law, because they face the same rules. I asked my Department to engage with the Dutch procurement body to determine whether it was taking a different approach and whether there was something different that we could do that would give a better outcome for companies. In any procurement competition, there is only one winner, meaning everybody else is aggrieved. One party is happy and all the other companies feel let down. That is the nature of the competition. There are more dissatisfied people at the end than satisfied people.