John Gilroy (Labour)

I have in my hand a pre-qualification questionnaire, which is part of a tendering process sent out by UCD to provide third level online educational programmes. It is a standard document as part of a tendering process. However, what amazes and alarms me is that on page 6 one of the criteria for successful applicants is that the relevant turnover must be a minimum of €1 million. The tendering process is not decided on a graduated points scoring system; it is a pass or fail. If one has a turnover of €1 million, one is still in the running, but if one does not, one is not. This strikes me as being particularly strange because this is public money coming from the Department of Education and Skills. The Minister of State, Deputy Sherlock, is doing great work on developing a smart economy in the country but this eliminates potential developers of these IT services due to their scale and not their ability. It is very strange. Will the Leader facilitate a debate on this element of the smart economy and the tendering process in general with the relevant Minister to inform us on his latest thinking?