Kieran O'Donnell (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I support my colleagues who raised the issue of public procurement. It affects booksellers today and others on other days. As a matter of urgency, we should invite to the House the Minister of State at the Department of Finance with responsibility for public procurement, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, to have a debate on this issue.Up and down the country, SMEs are losing contracts for a service that they may have been providing for 20 or 30 years to a particular State body in a particular location. The frameworks are being designed where they are looking at it in gross terms, so all the contracts combined, which could in some cases be 100 or more contractors, suppliers or small family businesses. If there appears to be a small saving to the overall State they lose the contracts to, in a lot of cases, large multinationals. A lot of them provide employment here, but some may not be. There is a loss of jobs throughout Ireland, aside from the social dimension.

Senator Warfield spoke about local libraries. A local bookseller would provide books relevant to that local area. If it is, for instance, in Limerick City and County Council, someone may be providing books that are relevant to local historians in Limerick. That would be unique to Limerick Library. That whole intellectual knowledge would be lost. This is about the design of the frameworks, about finding a methodology where local contractors can retain the contracts. They have to go up for tender in the normal way, but at least they should be able to tender. At the moment they are not. I ask the Leader and the Cathaoirleach to, as a matter of urgency, arrange for the Minister of State at the Department of Finance, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, to come before the House so we can debate this matter at length.