Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

This amendment seeks to remove the criteria to have public competition by the board, or whatever is established by the Minister of State. It is important that we mandate the board to have public competition around procurement. The Minister of State mentioned on Committee Stage that he wanted to have soft laws around procurement that do not impact all the other elements of the public procurement service. On this side of the House, it is important that we have that mandated by law. It was agreed by the Minister of State in the Seanad and I do not think he has justified the removal of that from the Bill. We need an explanation as to why the Minister of State would remove public competition from the Bill.

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