Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is No. 2528. I want to comment briefly on it. It is in relation to non-compliant procurement. The ten contracts awarded were in place at a value of €2.369 million. Of the ones listed, there is over €1 million for Word Perfect - a contract awarded with an interpretation service that is drawn down. Ms McPhillips sets out there corrective action. The Department has commenced drawing down interpretation services under the Office of Government Procurement framework. One wonders why translation and interpretation would not have been put out to tender in the first place.

There was a second one. The second largest one is translation again. There is a figure there, a substantial figure, of €661,000. A lot of the issues listed as non-compliant are coming up. They are certainly ones that one would imagine are not specialised and for which there would be more than one provider available. That is the point that is a bit puzzling about it, and why the Department is not complying better with all of that. They set out corrective actions in it and we need to follow that when the Department comes in again to the committee to make sure these are being followed up on.

Deputy Catherine Murphy wanted to comment on this as well.