Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I will not disagree and I thank the Deputy for supporting the OGP. It is a very good organisation which is exposing all these issues for the first time. In terms of transparency, it is the first time we have had a transparent system of public procurement. For decades, nobody knew who was buying what from whom across the public service.

There is a journey to be travelled to ensure we have much better interaction with small firms. Some small firms are frightened off because the thing seems too difficult. They need to be helped and we are working on that. The meet the buyers outreach programme is where we talk to SMEs throughout the country about specific tenders or projects to see how the companies can bid for these tenders and to assist them. There will be occasions where it will be a requirement for companies to band together, and we will assist that too. All this is important.

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