Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I propose to take Questions Nos. 9 and 11 together.

Public procurement is governed by EU and national rules, the aim of which is to promote an open, competitive and non-discriminatory public procurement regime which delivers best value for money. It would be a breach of the EU rules for a public body to favour or discriminate against particular candidates on grounds such as nationality, organisational size or any other matter, and there are legal remedies which may be used against any public body infringing these rules.

The Government acknowledges the significant role SMEs play in the Irish economy and is committed to ensuring SMEs are fully engaged with public sector procurement and the opportunities which public sector procurement presents to them. To encourage greater SME participation, the Office of Government Procurement has conducted a targeted programme of education for suppliers who wish to learn more about doing business with the Irish public service.  This programme consists of seminars, workshops and large-scale so-called meet the buyer events throughout the country.  These meet the buyer events are run in conjunction with Enterprise Ireland and InterTradeIreland. To date, the Office of Government Procurement has facilitated workshops and presented at seminars to more than 4,500 SMEs nationwide.  These events afforded suppliers an opportunity to meet and discuss the issues with public service buyers and provide networking opportunities for suppliers to build consortia and synergies between suppliers to facilitate joint bids.

My Department has also recently finished reviewing and updating existing guidelines and procedures aimed at promoting SME participation in public procurement. Circular 10 of 2014, launched on 17 April, sets out new initiatives aimed at opening up opportunities for small businesses to bid for State business. These new guidelines are aimed at reducing the administrative burden and costs on businesses that want to tender for public contracts. The SME working group, established under the Government's Action Plan for Jobs, was consulted on the new guidelines. The SME working group is chaired by the Office of Government Procurement and includes representatives from the Irish Small and Medium Enterprises Association, ISME, the Irish Business Employers Confederation, IBEC, InterTradeIreland, Enterprise Ireland, the Competition Authority, the Small Firms Association, Chambers Ireland and the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation. The new circular has been broadly welcomed by industry representative associations.

The reform of public procurement across the public service is ongoing and will continue to provide opportunities to the SME sector to win business here and to shape them to win business abroad as well. The Office of Government Procurement will continue to work with SMEs to ensure that winning Government business is done in a fair, transparent and accessible way and to ensure that Government procurement policies are business friendly.

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