Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I will bring forward legislation this year on the matter. I hope we can work constructively on that.

That legislation is designed to bring greater transparency and social value to public procurement. The Government's own recent White Paper on industrial policy stated that it wants to use public procurement in a strategic way. We will not be able to use the system in a strategic way unless we are gathering the data which would put us in a position to strategise. I would hope that we can work on that. If we are not using our public procurement in a strategic way for the benefit of everybody, we are not making the most of that money or that return.

I want to ask the Minister one last time about the controversies of the last week as it is my last opportunity. Did Michael Stone pay people to put up posters for the Minister in the 2020 general election?

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