Kevin O'Keeffe (Cork East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Ceann Comhairle is costing me more seconds.

I thank my colleagues, Deputies Darragh O'Brien and Frank O'Rourke, for bringing forward this Private Members' Bill. I feel compelled to speak because one of the biggest issues I faced, like I am sure all other Deputies, during the 2016 general election campaign, as we canvassed in the towns and villages in our respective constituencies, was the impact the recession had had on small and medium-sized businesses. The respective parties may have differed in their election manifestos on how best to help, support and grow many small and medium-sized businesses, but there was consensus among us that we needed to do more. Let me make it clear. This Private Members' Bill gives the House and us, as politicians, the chance to keep the promises we made during the general election last year to help and support small and medium-sized businesses. I intend to keep my promise by voting for the Bill.

The Office of Government Procurement has done good work and tried to make progress in allowing SME companies to tender for public procurement contracts. I also acknowledge that the Minister of State, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, has done his utmost to listen to the small and medium-sized businesses most affected by procurement rules. I was glad to see him in UCC on 3 February to listen to and discuss the issues in public procurement. Representatives of many SMEs in my constituency of Cork East attended the briefing and welcomed that fact that at least their concerns were being listened to. However, despite the progress made, many public bodies and Departments are refusing to reform their procurement processes. They often hide behind EU law as an excuse not to engage on the issue and this must be stopped. lreland's public procurement market is worth billions of euro annually; as such it is an important market for SMEs to access. However, public contracts have been difficult for SMEs to win because the tender process tends to favour the larger and financially better off foreign companies that have more resources. By failing to introduce legislation to rectify this, we have completely undermined SMEs which have been left disadvantaged compared to their EU counterparts. I have learned about an individual in my constituency who was reprimanded by the Government agency for which he works because he had bought in his local shop a box of biros for staff instead of ordering them through the normal source. That is ridiculous and just one example of many.

There is a growing sense among Irish businesses that EU procurement laws have not served Ireland well. The system does not function fairly. However, in saying that, our continental neighbours and competitors manage to support their small businesses in a way that Ireland does not. EU member states such as Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany and Italy allow for social clauses to be incorporated into their procurement processes. The Bill provides for that to happen here and it is vital that it does so to put us on a par with our European competitors.

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