Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I take the Deputy's concerns on board. I met the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donovan, at the start of my tenure and discussed this issue with him. He impressed on me the importance of the SME advisory group and that there was a perception that it was difficult for SMEs to get contracts despite the fact that 54% of the contract value awarded by the OGP went to SMEs. We must keep engaging with SME representatives and ask them what we need to change. I am told that, from the previous engagement, it was clear that they did not want to change the €25,000 threshold.

There may be other measures that can be taken. I intend to maintain the engagement that the Minister of State had with SMEs. The next time we convene the advisory group, I would be happy to take Deputy Grealish's concerns to it for discussion. With businesses under so much stress after the pandemic in particular, they need new contracts. There is a large amount of Government spending occurring at the moment, and it is important that those businesses have a fair shot at getting those contracts.

See this speech in context