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

There are times when the procurement rules can be short-circuited, compressed or skipped altogether and they tend to occur when there is an emergency. I mean one cannot hold a tender for something when, for example, something is on fire. We saw this during the pandemic. When one has to buy syringes or something one may not have three months to get the best price. The same applies during the Ukrainian crisis with trying to find accommodation and food. One can reach over and pick the first available largest thing that can satisfy. One will always try to get some quotes and try to do something but sometimes that is what the result is.

I cannot comment on the National Gallery's procurement exercise, whether it was followed correctly or on a particular company. Earlier another Senator asked me a question that I did not answer. I was asked about the history and reputation of a company and how that can be taken into account when awarding contracts. What the law and European law says is that if they have broken the law in some way then that can be taken into account. So if a company has a judgment against it then one can rule it out. However, if a company is still in court and is fighting with it all of the time then that may not be enough to rule it out, and it probably is not enough, because one cannot say a determination is faulty or a judgment has been reached. What one can do is ask for references from past contracts. One can take various approaches to this matter but public procurement is very different from private procurements.

As public procurement tries so hard to be non-discriminatory, give everybody a fair chance and avoid one country picking its people over another country or somebody who is connected to the government being chosen, then one attempts procurement in a very transparent way. However, it is hard to rule out people simply because it was bad working with them or one had a bad experience but one would have that option with private procurement. If a private company hired somebody to do some work and it was a nightmare then one would not hire it again but it is difficult for us to avoid that.

On the question of social considerations, these are key because they are part of the Government's strategic objectives. For example, we can put criteria into contracts stipulating how much training will be provided by the contractor and will be considered as part of the criteria for deciding whether to award the job. Other criteria can be how much local employment will be provided, how many people with disabilities will be employed etc. So one can put in social considerations. We have guidance and that guidance will be strengthened in future.