Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

Procurement policy and practice must conform to certain core principles and must be accountable, competitive and non-discriminatory, provide for equality of treatment and be fair, transparent and conducted with probity and integrity. As the Deputies have stated, those kinds of consideration have come into play in respect of what were formally known as "Buy Irish" campaigns, which did not have those constraints imposed upon them. We are now members of the Single Market and people have access to apply for tenders over a certain threshold. The same applies to Irish companies in respect of other EU states in which we compete.

I would take the point that tenders are prepared in a way that would not exclude smaller or medium-sized enterprises, which should have an opportunity. Those who prepare tenders need to be mindful of the need to ensure that people are not excluded by reason of the way in which tender documents are constructed and to be conscious of the need to divide tenders so that SMEs would not be automatically excluded. These kinds of consideration have to be borne in mind in an effort to make sure that local suppliers are given the opportunity in their own country to tender for these contracts.

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