Ms Caron McCaffrey:

To reassure the Deputy, a considerable amount of work has been done to ensure we become fully compliant with our procurement processes. That includes a new contract management system to allow us to start planning at the earliest possible stage for a contract to be awarded. We have a comprehensive corporate procurement plan. We have engaged external professional procurement consultants to assist us in ensuring we are fully compliant.

In 2020, the deputy and Comptroller and Auditor General appointed 16 contracts to a total value of €15.15 million, where contracts were rolled over. That compares with 26 such contracts in 2019 so there has been an improvement. The value in 2019 was €18.5 million so our figures are going in the right direction.

Of those 16 contracts, five involved the Office of Government Procurement. I can inform the Deputy that all of those contracts are now in place. Eleven cases were being managed by the Irish Prison Service and I can assure the Deputy that all of those contracts are now in place, with the exception of one which is currently out to tender for a value of €93,000. I can also inform the Deputy that we continue to make improvements in this regard. The value of our non-compliant procurement radically reduced in 2021 to €5.6 million. So far this year, only two contracts are non-compliant. It is an area of particular focus for the prison service and we have made good progress in that regard.