Terence Flanagan (Dublin North East, Fine Gael)
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Question 105: To ask the Taoiseach the print jobs carried out for his Department and being provided by companies based outside the Republic of Ireland; the dates of the awarding of these contracts; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27843/09]

Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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No printing contracts have been awarded by my Department to companies based outside the State.

In one case, a Dublin-based Irish publishing company, with whom my Department has a three-year contract (since January, 2008) for the production and distribution of a newsletter, has sub-contracted printing work in respect of five recent editions of that newsletter to a firm based in Northern Ireland. A small number of copies of a report published last year (200 out of 5,200) were also printed by the same firm, with the remainder printed by a company within the State.

The publishing company involved have stated that the selection of the printer is based on capacity issues and was conducted through a transparent tendering process open to companies in Ireland (North and South) as well as across Europe, which is in line with tendering procedures.