Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

I am delighted the Minister of State with responsibility for the OPW, Deputy Brian Hayes, is present. That is why I agree. When there are so many State agencies such as the HSE, State bodies, VECs and local authorities in operation, I guarantee the Minister there are different suppliers getting different prices for the same product because some of them merely drive a harder bargain. We all know there are tendering procedures, but the specification can be varied to suit a local need.

I am not always rushing for the cheapest. I am looking for the best value. Sometimes the cheaper product is a dirt product and one does not always want the cheapest. That is why I would welcome that record being developed in due course.

There will probably be data protection issues on the commercial sensitivity of prices on purchase orders, and the Minister might address this matter in due course. These issues will affect people bidding. Commercial sensitivity is often used as a way of spiking the release of some of this information. The Minister must take freedom of information, commercial sensitivity and data protection into consideration when drafting this. Data protection can be a good issue, but sometimes it can restrict the free flow of information between Departments which is in the interests of the public in terms of getting value for money. Perhaps the Minister would respond to these few additional points about the overall remuneration packages. Those are the specific points I wanted to raise at this stage.

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