Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senators for their contributions. The summing up of this as positive politics is exactly how I would like to see it. We are making significant progress by agreeing on all sides of the Chamber that there is a place in law for a procurement and social clauses Bill. We agree that such a Bill should be accompanied by rigorous guidance which provides clarity, flexibility and an understanding of exactly how we wish the elements of our procurement system to interact. It follows that the legislation should be broad enough to allow the guidance to provide this flexibility.

The small and medium-sized enterprise working group and the social clauses working group contain representatives of the various appropriate Departments and agencies. When the working groups report, we will be in a better place to advance the Bill through the other House and, ultimately, onto the Statute Book. I offer the House my commitment, as the Minister of State with responsibility for public procurement, that my position and that of the Government is that we are keen to see a public procurement social clauses Bill in law and we will work with people of all political views and none to make that happen. I was pleased to hear Senator O'Brien's intention to consult further with the business community and I will do likewise. We should ensure we have the best possible legislation in this area.

Senator Mooney asked a valid question. I will begin by making the point that until the establishment of the Office of Government Procurement, which is a newly born organisation, we had a scenario whereby many people in the public service worked on procurement as part of their job but few did so as a full-time job. Through the establishment of the Office of Government Procurement, we have created and continue to create a level of expertise. Now, we have a scenario whereby, regardless of the Department or State agency involved, those responsible know the OGP is the organisation that contains the expertise to carry our procurement and has the level of understanding, experience and qualifications necessary to get value for money for the taxpayer. As a result, all tenders are assessed by people with professional qualifications and expertise. This work is coupled with the work we are doing with the small and medium-sized enterprise working group, which has representatives from ISME, the Small Firms Association, Chambers Ireland and many others. The social clauses working group considers the impact on certain constituent communities or a given demographic of a procurement decision.

This brings me to the Senator's next point. We are also engaging in upskilling people who are filling out tendering documents in order that their documents are not invalid and they can make valid submissions. This is why we will have the Meet the Buyer event in Citywest shortly. I expect there could be up to a thousand business people there. They will have an opportunity to meet face-to-face with each of the State agencies and organisations. For example, I can go along and explain that my name is Simon and I sell pens, and I can ask who needs to buy pens and how I can get involved. We are working with InterTradeIreland on an all-island basis to train and upskill our SMEs. We had people at the National Ploughing Championship in this capacity.

The process is twofold. It is a question of building up the expertise within the public sector and the Office of Government Procurement as well as within the business community. Let us suppose a scenario were to unfold as the Senator hypothetically set out. In the first instance, the market response would include the question of whether those involved could re-tender, if necessary. It is possible to re-tender and it does arise. In my role as Minister of State with responsibility for the Office of Public Works, I have seen how we reissue tenders. Ultimately, it is a matter for the organisation or Department to decide whether it can afford the new higher-tendered price within its Vote or allocation. For example, a Coast Guard station may have been expected to cost €1 million, but when those responsible go to the market they may find that the only valid submission is €3 million. Do those responsible accept the €3 million bid or consider scaling back, postponing or re-tendering the project? It is complex. We need to build up expertise within the public service and ensure we have the best people looking at these things.

A point was made about Dublin versus the rest. The Office of Government Procurement has staff based in several locations outside Dublin. We are very much a national organisation in that sense. That is important. We are also developing category councils to build up expertise on what a given element of the market might need and what the future needs of the market might be in terms of framework agreements. It is early days for the Office of Government Procurement and there is a bedding-down process, but I am proud that we are making progress.