Martin Conway (Fine Gael)

There is not even telephone contact. They do not even return a call, which is appalling. The Minister needs to take another look at how this medical card process is being dealt with and perhaps go back to the original model, which was doing it through the community welfare officers.

I support the call by Senators Ó Murchú and Quinn on the Deputy Leader for a debate on buying Irish. Perhaps she would include in that debate how we could deal with the e-tendering process which exists for State companies and local authorities with projects valued in excess of €50,000. The e-tendering process is a system whereby people all over Europe tender for jobs in Ireland and by and large, it goes to the cheapest. It should apply to projects valued at €0.5 million or more. In the case of a contract for €100,000 where there is potential job creation here, the local authority should retain the flexibility to skip that process. If that was done, one would see many more jobs created and many more companies getting State business.