Results 8,441-8,460 of 15,555 for speaker:Eoghan Murphy

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Procurement Issues: Minister of State at the Department of Finance (1 Jun 2017)

Eoghan Murphy: It depends on how they have decided to set the threshold, which is a decision for each individual state. As we increase the threshold we will lose less transparency on what has been awarded. Again, this is public money. We will have less data, which I think is a con. The pro is that more Irish businesses will be successful in winning contracts. One of the things that I really want to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Procurement Issues: Minister of State at the Department of Finance (1 Jun 2017)

Eoghan Murphy: I have often heard businesses complain to me that we have placed too much emphasis on price and not enough on the quality of the service delivered. The Chairman has made the point that we do not place enough emphasis on price. We must strike a balance. Depending on what we are contracting for, the quality will have more of an impact than the price. With utilities one goes for price and...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Procurement Issues: Minister of State at the Department of Finance (1 Jun 2017)

Eoghan Murphy: Yes.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Procurement Issues: Minister of State at the Department of Finance (1 Jun 2017)

Eoghan Murphy: I invite the Chairman and the committee to carry out a helpful exercise, and I know it is because I have done it myself. I suggest that they go through a tender process in the offices of the OGP. They can see what a business must go through to get into one of the frameworks. Members will see the different steps that must be taken. We are considering ways to simplify the process further,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Procurement Issues: Minister of State at the Department of Finance (1 Jun 2017)

Eoghan Murphy: I cannot speak about a particular tender process or where there might be a mini competition under way at the moment. It is difficult for me.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Procurement Issues: Minister of State at the Department of Finance (1 Jun 2017)

Eoghan Murphy: The weighting given to something such as management structure will depend on the competition. We have made improvements in terms of turnover. We have brought down the turnover that is required on a capital project. We have to be mindful the company has evidence it has the capacity to do the project. If the State was to engage the services of a company to do something and the company...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Procurement Issues: Minister of State at the Department of Finance (1 Jun 2017)

Eoghan Murphy: It would be helpful for the committee to make a site visit to the Office of Government Procurement. It is a complex technical issue across a whole range of Government areas, as the Senator has identified. It would be a good opportunity for the committee to really get into the detail of these different issues. The suggestion to only invite Fine Gael Members of the Oireachtas was a joke. It...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Procurement Issues: Minister of State at the Department of Finance (1 Jun 2017)

Eoghan Murphy: I do not understand the question. I hear all the time from small businesses about their impression we are gold-plating EU directives in Ireland and putting more in than we need to when we should not be. We absolutely have to understand the directives are there and where they can be helpful we should use them. In many instances, we have to use them but we should not be putting anything...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Procurement Issues: Minister of State at the Department of Finance (1 Jun 2017)

Eoghan Murphy: The officials have been engaging-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Procurement Issues: Minister of State at the Department of Finance (1 Jun 2017)

Eoghan Murphy: Three quotes are required if it is between €5,000 and €25,000. That can be done with a quick phone call. It sounds onerous but over time, it is not a small amount of money if it is being done regularly and across the country. We have to have some standards in place. The office is in touch with Leader about explaining exactly what we are trying to do.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Procurement Issues: Minister of State at the Department of Finance (1 Jun 2017)

Eoghan Murphy: It remains to be seen what Brexit will mean for the Single Market, what access the UK will have to it and on what terms. The Office of Government Procurement has been preparing for Brexit-related issues in terms of risks we may face. We might already be contracting something from the UK that is an essential service we do not have here. Is there a gap there where we will not be able to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Procurement Issues: Minister of State at the Department of Finance (1 Jun 2017)

Eoghan Murphy: It is being examined. It was raised in our recent road show engagement in Cavan because it came up quite a lot there. We are looking at it but I thank the Senator for raising it.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Procurement Issues: Minister of State at the Department of Finance (1 Jun 2017)

Eoghan Murphy: There is a framework in which the Office of Government Procurement works with four other areas of Government. They work to a common standard of professionalism and expertise in contracting out public services. Local authorities will put in place tender arrangements for certain goods and services but they will do it under the auspices of the Office of Government Procurement or in line with...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Procurement Issues: Minister of State at the Department of Finance (1 Jun 2017)

Eoghan Murphy: The Office of Government Procurement.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Procurement Issues: Minister of State at the Department of Finance (1 Jun 2017)

Eoghan Murphy: It is a local government management agency with that responsibility and function for local authorities where they contract goods and services. They interact with the Office of Government Procurement on how that should be done.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Procurement Issues: Minister of State at the Department of Finance (1 Jun 2017)

Eoghan Murphy: I do not know if it is a statutory body. It is made up of representatives of the local authorities. They interact with the Office of Government Procurement, OGP, on the frameworks to be put in place.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Procurement Issues: Minister of State at the Department of Finance (1 Jun 2017)

Eoghan Murphy: Yes.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Procurement Issues: Minister of State at the Department of Finance (1 Jun 2017)

Eoghan Murphy: It depends on the framework that is put in place. For example, in regard to contracts for legal services for local authorities we might put a national framework in place but we might break it down into lots by region. Therefore, a local authority could contract from a person in the regional part of the framework. There are different ways of doing it. Much depends on the good or service...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Procurement Issues: Minister of State at the Department of Finance (1 Jun 2017)

Eoghan Murphy: A lot of engagement takes place before a framework for a tender is put in place by the OGP. It engages with the relevant contracting authorities taking on the service, be that a local council or the committee of local councils. It will also engage with industry, recognising that it might have a better understanding of the matter at hand, to see what might be possible under a framework...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Procurement Issues: Minister of State at the Department of Finance (1 Jun 2017)

Eoghan Murphy: It is because of the types of legal challenges we have seen in the past, including one unsuccessful bidder taking a legal challenge against the successful bidder and, as a result, flood protection works are delayed for five years. We are trying to do as much work as possible upfront on the Government side, in terms of planning, such that when we put a framework in place it is not open to...