Alan Kelly
Question:150. Deputy Alan Kelly asked the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the reason the SME working group of the Office of Government Procurement has not met since February 2017. [12474/18]
View answerTuesday, 20 March 2018
Questions (150)
Written answers
The SME Working (Advisory) group, chaired by my colleague, Minister of State Patrick O’Donovan, meets on a quarterly basis in accordance with the Programme for Government, so that the voice of Irish SMEs can be heard by Government and the Office of Government Procurement (OGP).
In 2017, the group met in February, May, September and December. The first meeting of 2018 was earlier this month on 8 March and further meetings are planned throughout 2018. The group, containing representatives from the public sector and business representative bodies, has been working to further promote SME participation in the public procurement process.
The membership of the group consists of officials from the OGP, the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation (DBEI), Enterprise Ireland (EI), InterTrade Ireland (ITI), the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC), as well as representatives from the Irish Business and Employers’ Confederation (IBEC), the Small Firms Association (SFA), the Construction Industry Federation (CIF), the Irish Small and Medium Enterprises Association (ISME) and Chambers Ireland.
Question No. 151 answered with Question No. 120.