Noel Grealish (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

To supply furniture to a college. I will give the Minister of State the details and I would appreciate it if he could examine the case.

A mechanism should be provided for companies to engage with contracting authorities, which would also ensure that pre-qualification criteria are not too onerous and are proportionate to the contract in question. An appeals mechanism should be put in place to allow SMEs to contest and challenge decisions in a fair and transparent way. A policy should be introduced to deal with risk aversion among public sector purchasing officers to encourage diversification and the opening up of new supply lines. Where the Government supports local suppliers, local people keep their jobs and additional jobs might be created in the supply companies. This leads to the desired effect of indirect job creation in the wider domestic economy. As current Government policy is very much to stimulate domestic spending to refloat our economy, this is the most desirable consequence for everybody and means a positive outcome for all.

Regarding unfair competition, large companies create a monopoly effect, and this makes participation impossible for small businesses. The consolidation of purchasing power normally results in monopoly suppliers, and this always has an adverse impact on the smaller supplier.

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