Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Minister has asked a fair question. One of the explanations is that, for reasons of which he is well aware, east and west Galway got going much later than the rest of the country. We should park that issue.

I asked a very simple question, namely, whether the Minister will go to the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform to ask that the threshold for the requirement for e-tenders be raised. This can be done under EU law. It would save a great deal of the money that is currently being spent on consultants preparing e-tenders instead of on the programme. One of the biggest problems at the moment is that much of the money being provided is going to consultants rather than communities groups. It is not being spent on bricks and mortar or on getting the job done. The Minister knows that as well as I do. I am putting a practical proposal to him. He should go to the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform and get the threshold for the requirement for e-tenders increased and the level of bureaucracy reduced. I asked a simple question and he might provide a simple answer to it.

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