Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

In fairness to public service procurers, people want to deal with reputable organisations and firms based on the quality of their product and the fact that they can provide it at short notice and the way those seeking the product want it. I do not believe one can place conditions in terms of what trade union is represented and so on. One is dealing with the procurement of a product which must be safe, competitively priced and meet requirements. If people meet those conditions, they are entitled to tender.

People in other capacities have responsibilities to ensure matters are properly handled in terms of our employment law and so on. If one brought that into the procurement process, one would complicate it which could cause delay and additional cost by the time one sorted it out. There is a need to avoid bringing in responsibilities other than those about which we are talking, that is, getting value for money for products which are safe for people to use or for whatever purpose they are sought. There is the wider supervisory role of the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment in regard to labour law matters. The labour inspectorate deals with that issue and it should not be brought into the tendering process.

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