Noel Grealish (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I hope the Minister of State can supply me with information on this process. The fact that small companies cannot tender gives an unfair advantage to multinationals while, at the same time, stymieing the growth of such small companies and putting jobs in towns and local communities at risk. Meanwhile, non-Irish-based companies are supplying these goods and sending profits abroad. I recently took a price list for stationery items procured by a school in Galway and compared the prices in a local stationery shop. The goods were €200 more expensive than the same products from the local supply shop. I will pass the details on to the Minister of State later for him to examine.

The threshold of a €3 million turnover per annum to qualify for tendering to supply government bodies is completely unrealistic in the current economic climate and needs to be significantly lowered, particularly for small-scale projects. For example, if the local stationery shop, which pays rates to its local county council, wishes to supply that council with envelopes, it would have to prove its business was operating with a turnover in excess of €3 million before it could tender.

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