Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am disappointed in the attitude of the Deputy to the modernisation of procurement. The Deputy is quite content to have a dysfunctional procurement operation that was the hallmark of his own time in Government when nobody knew the price of goods and services and every State agency was buying the same products from the same suppliers at different prices. We professionalised that system but it cannot be professionalised in an instant. The recruitment process has been slower than we expected but I can tell the House now that as of 11 September there were some 178 of the expected 231 people recruited. There are some vacancies still in the process. Obviously, appointments have been made and people waiting to take up those appointment. When we have recruited the full cohort of people, we will have a professional procurement system for the public service for the first time in our history.

It will give transparency to the way we buy goods and services that will be analogous to best commercial practices that we would expect of very large companies. The State and taxpayer deserve and expect nothing less.

See this speech in context