Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

In broad terms, what we are trying to do with public procurement is get a good price. We want to get value for money for the State and for the taxpayer but at the same time, we want to get the highest quality product and we want to do our purchasing in a transparent way. Lastly, we have strategic procurement, which is a new thing and the issue here is our compliance with Government objectives in terms of climate change, green procurement, social procurement and so on. These are the overall goals of procurement.

I share the objectives of this Bill and believe that we all want to arrive at the same place. The Senator has asked about the wider implications from an EU point of view. There are EU directives on procurement with which we must comply. Effectively, they are European law and with that in mind, when I spoke to the Attorney General's office, the advice I got was that it was not happy with the wording and was concerned that the Bill would be not in compliance with European law. I have to take that seriously but at the same time, I know that the Dutch have managed to achieve this goal. The Dutch are under the same regime and have to comply with the same EU directives. In that sense, I know we can get there. I know that between now and Report Stage I can work with the Attorney General and we can find a way to word this so that we achieve what we are trying to achieve without exposing ourselves to the risk of breaking European law.

We are looking here at quality criteria. For some people, there is a fear that quality criteria means subjective criteria and that we are moving away from objective criteria, such as the amount of money we are willing to pay, towards more subjective criteria which makes the process more like a beauty contest. In fact, however, quality does not have to be subjective. There are many ways to measure quality on a numerical scale, including various ratings, the qualifications of the staff who will carry out the task and so on. We do not necessarily have to equate subjective criteria with quality criteria; they are not always the same thing.

I have detailed the section I am trying to amend in order to remove any risk of being non-compliant with European law, namely section 3(4). I want to minimise legal challenges. While we cannot avoid them altogether, one of our the objectives in the context of this Bill is to make sure we are not inviting ourselves into a world where every decision is challenged and projects are delayed as a result.