Deputy Gene Fitzgerald has been given permission to put a Private Notice Question to the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs. Will Deputy Fitzgerald please read the question?
Private Notice Questions. - Tyre Contract.
I want to ask the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs if he will as a matter of urgency intervene to prevent the Government order which had hitherto been placed with the Irish Dunlop Company being placed elsewhere and if he will make a statement on the matter?
I assume that the contract to which the Deputy refers is that for two sizes of tyres required by the Garda Síochána. A contract for part of the quantities of both items has been placed with another Irish manufacturer following competitive tendering in accordance with standard Government contracting procedures. A decision in regard to the order for the remainder will not be reached for some time.
As the contract in question was placed in accordance with approved Government contracting procedures it would be inappropriate for me to intervene in the matter. I should add, however, that Irish Dunlop Co. Ltd. continue to hold the Department's main contract for tyres.
Could I ask the Minister if he is aware that such contracts were placed last year and in previous years and with what company?
I did not catch the question.
Could I ask the Minister whether such contracts were placed last year and in previous years and with what company?
In the time available to me I do not have that information but I will certainly communicate with the Deputy as soon as it is available. I got this question only half an hour ago.
Would the Minister not agree that contracts for these tyres were placed last year and in previous years with the Irish Dunlop Company?
As I understand it, the situation is that there is a major contract for tyres being considered at the moment. This is held now and has been for some time by Messrs. Dunlop and Company, Cork. No decision has been taken by the Controller of Stores or by the Government Contracts Committee on the main contract which, as I said, is still held by Dunlop of Cork.
It would seem that my timely intervention has saved some of it for the moment, but might I ask in respect of the orders that the Minister says have been placed — I am not talking about what I have succeded in preventing being placed elsewhere; I am talking about those that have been placed — with what company those orders have been placed and in what constituency is that company?
The answer is, that the contract to which the Deputy refers, the value of which, I understand, is £30,000, was placed with Messrs. Semperit Limited which, as the Deputy knows, is not in my constituency — just outside it.
What is the postal address?
Killeen Road, County Dublin, I think. In fact, I think it is just outside the boundary. The Deputy, I presume, is inferring that maybe there was improper influence. There was not. There are 13 tenders — I am speaking from memory now — for this small contract for two types of tyre. A price was received from each of the 13 tenderers. One of the tenders was excluded on the basis that they were unsuitable for some reason and the cheapest tender got the contract. I have just been told that because of fluctuation in tyre prices during the year it was thought fair to seek retendering and retendering was sought and still the cheapest price got the contract. I should also tell the Deputy that the first I heard of the actual allocation of the contract was this afternoon.
Deputy Gene Fitzgerald, for a final supplementary question.
If that is the case, I will need more than one supplementary, I am afraid, because we hear a lot about this issue. Could I ask the Minister to explain how come he is so familiar with the detail of the number of firms who tendered, of the fact that tenders were invited on more than one occasion, as to who was the cheapest and who was not the cheapest and how one firm was not for some reason acceptable?
It ill becomes Deputy McCartin to be raising an issue like this.
(Interruptions.)
Order, please.
Deputy McCartin will discuss anything with Deputy Fitzgerald inside or outside the House. When the Deputy was invited to come on television, he did not.
Do not tell untruths.
Order. I would ask Deputies to realise that this is the national Parliament and that one way or another the eyes of this country and of the outside world are on this assembly and I am asking everybody in the House to respect this assembly for what it is, our national Parliament.
I am asking the Ceann Comhairle to get Deputy Fitzgerald to repeat clearly what he is saying——
I am ruling that out of order and I am passing on.
I would like Deputy Fitzgerald to repeat clearly what he has said so that we can understand it.
Deputy Fitzgerald, if you have a question to ask, please ask it.
I was sidetracked by diversionary tactics. If I could repeat the question, would the Minister explain to me how it is he is so familiar with so much detail of these contracts to which he refers, the fact that 13 firms tendered, that one was unsuitable, that there were more than one opportunity given to those firms to tender, who was cheapest and despite having all that information, he cannot tell me where these contracts were placed last year and in previous years. That is the first question. Secondly, in view of the unsatisfactory nature of the Minister's attitude I suggest that as a matter of serious and urgent concern we have a full investigation to establish what really happened in the placing of these contracts. May I repeat that my intervention may well have been timely to save some of the contract for a beleaguered tyre firm in Cork?
In answer to the first part of the Deputy's question, the fact of this Private Notice Question, which was originally tabled to the Minister for Industry and Energy, was brought to my attention less than one hour ago. In the time available I got officials of my Department to give me as thorough a briefing as possible. I regret that I do not have the particular details but I will communicate with the Deputy. I got as much detail as I could.
Were they placed with Dunlop or not?
The answer is, I do not know. I simply do not know.
I just want——
I am now moving on to a question to another Minister. We have spent ten minutes on this.
I just want to say and I think I am entitled to say——
The Deputy is entitled to ask a question.
I made no inference but I asked if the Minister would arrange an investigation into the whole system as it applies to this tender, what happened, when it happened, who got the contract, why they got it and all other aspects of it. Can we have the investigation and have it quickly?
As I said, I would welcome this but if I could arrange for and offered to Deputy Fitzgerald to have discussions with the relevant officials of my Department, he may satisfy himself absolutely that normal procedures were followed.
Why not an investigation?
I am prepared to do anything to reassure them.
Is the Minister prepared to have a proper fully constituted investigation carried out?
That is repetition.
Yes or no?