Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

We have centralised procurements and will have a handle on what we spend when buying goods and services for the State. This will probably be the first time we have a comprehensive picture so that different State agencies do not buy goods and services from the same supplier at different rates.

Less than 5% of the overall public procurement spend is now won by foreign companies. In excess of 95% of public procurement in Ireland is won by Irish companies, 75% of which are SMEs. That was the figure for last year, up from 60% in 2012. Whatever we are doing, we are moving in the right direction.

It is equally important to open the vista and enable Irish SMEs tender for the enormous EU public tendering market, which is valued at €2.4 trillion. A small slice of that would work wonders for the Irish economy.

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