Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

On a number of the points the Deputy has raised, we have such policies in place. In addition, we must comply with the national public procurement policy framework, which came under the Department of the Taoiseach last summer. As I said at the outset, my Department is developing a corporate procurement plan that will have to cover all points within the policy framework. There will be designated officials but I think my Department's expenditure might not justify bringing in additional people. There are designated people in the IT area, however. We have been fortunate in that much of the work has been done in-house owing to the skills of some staff who happen to have concentrated on this for most of their careers. Therefore, there are such designated people who cover many of those issues.

We must fulfil all the guidelines under the corporate procurement plan, including examining issues such as the difficulties in securing supplies of goods and services in a competitive market, the relative expenditure on goods and services, and the total cost of individual goods and services relative to total purchasing in the organisation. All the criteria that have been set down under the Department of Finance guidelines must now be implemented on a departmental basis. We must comply with that Department's view that this is the only way to deal with such issues. I am not sure about the ethical code but I will raise the matter with my officials.

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