Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail)

I echo the points made by Deputy Séamus McGrath. The EU procurement rules are rather outdated. A lot of the regulation that is stifling what this country is able to do is not domestic but comes from an EU treaty. The time has come for us to be able to procure beyond the EU 27 bloc for very large projects, such as hospitals, large road projects, rail, etc. It has repeatedly happened that projects we pitch a certain amount of money for have cost twice as much by the time they have gone through all the gateways. We need to procure beyond the European Union. I hope the Minister will be able to raise that at the Council of Ministers in due course.

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