asked the Minister for Communications if there are any proposals before the Council of Ministers for the EC in regard to public procurement which affect the rights of national telecom authorities to discriminate in favour of domestically produced goods; if the EC proposals in this matter are supported by Ireland; and when he expects major changes to be made in the matter.

There are at present no proposals affecting public procurement of telecommunications equipment before the Council of Ministers of the European Community. It is expected that some proposals will be put forward by the Commission this year and these will be examined on their merits when they are published.

What proportion of Telecom Eireann purchases are in fact home based.

I have not got that figure in front of me but I will get it. However the Deputy can rest assured that it is the vast bulk of it. I should say to the Deputy that the view of Government is that we would have to have access by Irish manufacturers to the European market itself. The size of our local market in telecommunications equipment is too small to sustain a sizeable industry and we believe that there are opportunities out there for it. It is also a feature of the star programme which recently became available to us that public sector purchasing will not discriminate in respect of supplies of equipment established in other Community countries. We favour that principle. It will open up opportunities for us.

Does the Minister intend going beyond the existing competition which refers to equipment into actual competition in relation to services?

No. It is equipment we are talking about here.