Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I have very little choice here because the legal advice from the Attorney General and the Chief State Solicitor’s office is that we are in breach of procurement law and these services have to go out to tender. I want to put the Deputy’s mind at ease. I recall last year every time the Deputy’s predecessor, Deputy Kerrane, and I came in here for parliamentary questions, Deputy Kerrane said the existing providers would lose out under the new tender process for the local area employment service. She said they would be decimated. What actually happened was the existing local groups won in every area. Community-based, not-for-profit organisations provide local area employment services across the country and we expanded the services to more areas so we could make sure everybody get the benefit of it. I was talking to one provider the other day and he said it was the best thing that happened because they have more flexibility and autonomy in managing their affairs and that it is working much better for everyone. He said it worked out a lot better than they had thought, and I said I was glad.

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