Frank O'Rourke (Kildare North, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate the Ceann Comhairle's flexibility in allowing me to sum up. I will be very brief.

I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, for his support for the Bill and allowing it to be passed on Second Stage, I appreciate the co-operation we have both shown to each other in the discussions we have had up to now on the issues surrounding the Bill which we have discussed it in detail. We are on the same page in that we want the right thing for the SME sector, the local economy, the national economy, etc. We want to make sure we do it in a positive way, by engagement, interaction, working together, making changes and bringing foward amendments, where needs be, to strengthen the Bill and move it in the right direction. We are already open to this and look forward to working together to ensure the Bill is progressed in a speedy and positive way.

I also thank Deputies Sean Sherlock and David Cullinane for their support for the Bill and all of the other Deputies who spoke in support of it.

I do not agree with the Minister of State when he says it is negative for the SME sector. We have had several engagements with stakeholders in the SME sector who see this as a very positive move to further assist in the good work being done by the OGP in helping them access on a level playing pitch, and tender for, these public contracts in a competitive way, which is not fully the case now. We must move to close the loophole and assist them.

As my colleagues said, the SME sector employs 900,000 people and €12 billion worth of public service tenders are offered annually. It is incumbent on us all to work collectively and responsibly to ensure we offer and tender these contracts in such a way as to allow the SMEs compete fairly within the framework and guidelines, without favouritism, in order to keep that money in the local economy, which supports local businesses and jobs and feeds back into the Exchequer.

I thank everyone who contributed to this debate and the officials in the OGP office whom I met and who were very supportive. We look forward to the Bill progressing speedily.

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