Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

If the Germans, French, Italians and Spanish can find a way to avoid having people in every other country easily reading tender documents, I ask the Government to adjust the process to the advantage of domestic businesses. This is being done within EU procurement rules. I ask the Minister to get a little bit more clever about this. He should do as the Germans, French, Italians, Spanish and every country does for 98.6% of government contracts. We should not be left behind. The Taoiseach knows we have a procurement budget each year of €12 billion, with €9 billion in current expenditure and €3 billion in capital expenditure. For every 1% we can increase this over 95%, it is an additional €120 million staying in the country and not going to foreign companies. The issue must be tackled if we are serious about keeping jobs at home. This is a budget for the rich and those who have; those who have not are being left out.

See this speech in context