Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I propose to take Questions Nos. 7 and 41 together.

The National Procurement Service, NPS, is responsible for the collection of the annual procurement statistics for all supplies, services and works contract notices that are advertised on e-tenders, which are above the EU threshold levels within any given year. It should be noted that below threshold statistics are not collected.

While the NPS collects data on services contracts above the EU threshold levels, it does not specifically collect information relating to construction service contracts as it would be difficult to differentiate construction service specific contracts from general service contracts based on the criteria used in the data collection process. Accordingly, only works contracts are available on construction-related public procurement projects. The statistics for 2012 are not available for review at this point as the NPS has only just started the process of gathering the data and it will take several months to complete.

The breakdown for the 2011 statistics for above EU threshold works contracts is set out in the following table. Each year, the NPS issues a notice to all contracting authorities that publish a notice on e-tenders, requesting them to complete an appropriate form outlining their procurement figures via an online database. It should be noted that the following figures are based on a 75% return rate from all contracting authorities which were issued this notice requesting their figures for 2011. The contracts that are quoted as being “unawarded at time of collection” relate to contracts that were advertised during 2011 but by the end of the year had not been awarded. In those instances, a maximum estimated contract value was requested from the relevant contracting authority for inclusion in the statistics.

Central Government

Local and Regional Authorities/Others

*One Northern Irish supplier included in this total. The value of this contract was €5,677,000.

**One contract with a value of €296,000 was awarded to a supplier listed as being from the UK.

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