Printing our government papers abroad

97i9y3941

As mentioned in the irish star on sunday today,the government have sourced the leaving cert papers to be printed in the uk,even the revenue commissioners have done the same with some of their papers by rewarding the contract to a spanish firm,now its well for the government to accuse or encourage us to shop local when they are effectively costing jobs in the printing industry by going abroad for job,yes i know some might say its best in the tax payers interest,but i think its an insult to the buy and shop irish crap that we hear so often,anyways heres more info here-
proof of story here too- http://www.insolvencyjournal.ie/home_more_details/10-04-09/Pressing_concerns.aspx

W123-80's

Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't these types of contracts advertised through the e-tenders website with very srecific award criteria??

If an Irish company had scored highest overall they win. I assume in this case the UK company score highest, therefore they get the contract.

This pretty much rules out any opportunity to award work to a company based on where they are from.
As i say I could be totally wrong, but that is my understanding of these types of public contracts.

Scarab80

All public contracts over a certain threshold must be tendered on a Europe wide basis on a fair and transparent basis according to EU legislation.

thebman

It is good, it stops a politician awarding it to Jim down the street who is a nice fella but might not have the resources for the task or in the case of leaving cert papers, security to keep people from getting at them.

Eliot Rosewater

Yes, this would be another of the reasons I am pro-EU. This particular system, whereby one has to tender contracts internationally, is an EU directive as far as I know. The other week the EU also passed a directive stipulating that local councils must charge VAT on their services if a private company could compete with them. In effect, it levels the playing field between government and businesses.

Anything that puts restraints on the government in such a manner is good in my opinion.

astrofool

It just shows we have some ways to go to be more competitive locally, if a foreign company from the UK or Spain can include shipping and still be cheaper.

These are two highly skilled in manufacturing countries, with strong labour laws, not Poland/India/China, which the local unions always have us competing with in a "race to the bottom".

Nijmegen

I agree that I'd rather have a UK company win the business in a fair tender than have the Minister for Education give it to his cousin who happens to own a printing press.

cson

All the above is bang on. It annoys me to see the little fiddle being brought out for 'poor' Irish businesses, in this case the printing press because the big bad government decided [more likely is forced to by EU legislation] to give it to foreigners. If Irish companies were competitive enough, they'd have had that contract.

Btw; before the new contract went out it was a Dutch company that held it.

dean21

Blame the tendering process and also blame the private sector company's in Ireland for not competing.
All thought the boom we had private sector company winning easy tenders and making a massive profit and look it look like they are still in the bubble.

dan_d

FÁS safepass cards are and always have been printed in Belgium because it's "cheaper".......yet the price of the course is what....150eur??
Go figure....

astrofool

Start up an Irish company that does it cheaper, and see if you can reduce that fee then.

It'd probably be €200 if they took the politicians brother's quote.

dan_d

Of course it would.
I just thought there was an amount of irony in that.Given what's come out about FÁS this year.

dunsandin

It is correct that all purchasing requirements above a certain threshold are put out to tender via e-tenders(I am a subscriber). I wonder though about how Irishly we apply this. I would love to hear from Irish contractors who have succesfully tendered for and taken contracts from foreign govts. There may well be many, but I wonder could the Irish govt not insert a clause that favours Irish companies in some way? Especially smaller Irish Companies. An example; my own company, amongst other things, repairs potholes. and were damn good at it. and we're cheaper than anyone else. I wince as I drive along our mangled roads and see the legions of potholes. Given a contract from the govt, we could fix so many potholes, so cheaply, and fast, but the tendering process is nigh on impossible for small enterprises. The bar is set so high and the process of tendering so convoluted that only a large company with full-time employees dedicated to tendering can realistically hope to succeed. In the mean time, we will just keep fixing potholes for private enterprises, and keep on wishing we could fix them for the general public. Oh yeah-and I actually like fixing potholes, but we fix much more besides.

Nijmegen

dunsandin wrote: »

It is correct that all purchasing requirements above a certain threshold are put out to tender via e-tenders(I am a subscriber). I wonder though about how Irishly we apply this. I would love to hear from Irish contractors who have succesfully tendered for and taken contracts from foreign govts. There may well be many, but I wonder could the Irish govt not insert a clause that favours Irish companies in some way? Especially smaller Irish Companies. An example; my own company, amongst other things, repairs potholes. and were damn good at it. and we're cheaper than anyone else. I wince as I drive along our mangled roads and see the legions of potholes. Given a contract from the govt, we could fix so many potholes, so cheaply, and fast, but the tendering process is nigh on impossible for small enterprises. The bar is set so high and the process of tendering so convoluted that only a large company with full-time employees dedicated to tendering can realistically hope to succeed. In the mean time, we will just keep fixing potholes for private enterprises, and keep on wishing we could fix them for the general public. Oh yeah-and I actually like fixing potholes, but we fix much more besides.

Whilst I agree that our tendering process could do with being a lot simpler - I received an explanation in not too much detail from one of my people today on public procurement in relation to the education sector, and it was mind boggling - I do not think that the solution is to favour Irish companies.

If you are the best company for the job, then the process should be made simpler so that companies can compete for the job on an even basis, not have to have a team of experts to go through the process (and I do believe that it's complex enough that a cottage industry has sprung up in this regard.)

But protectionism will not send the work your way, it will send the work to the relevant ministers constituency or similar.

astrofool

That's the other side of the EU, mind numbing beaurocracy. However, all countries tend to do this, look at the US tender for a new fuel tanker plane.

dunsandin

The fuel tanker plane will probably be provided by an Irish company! Are the McEvaddys not the lead company in that field?

dunsandin

But protectionism will not send the work your way, it will send the work to the relevant ministers constituency or similar.[/QUOTE]


No ofence, but i dont care a damn for protectionism. I compete daily for every contract I get, without exception pretty much. And the work floods my way, because I am genuinely competitive with anybody. What irks me is the fact that the best people dont always get the govt contracts, just the best placed and best funded.

Nijmegen

dunsandin wrote: »

But protectionism will not send the work your way, it will send the work to the relevant ministers constituency or similar.

No ofence, but i dont care a damn for protectionism. I compete daily for every contract I get, without exception pretty much. And the work floods my way, because I am genuinely competitive with anybody. What irks me is the fact that the best people dont always get the govt contracts, just the best placed and best funded.[/QUOTE]
As I say, I agree, it should be simplified and made a fairer playing field.

dunsandin

Somthings gone wrong with the time-space continuum above!!!