Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The information sought by the Deputy is not collected by my Department and would not be collected by contracting authorities as part of a procurement process. Individual contracting authorities in the public and utilities sectors would hold information in relation to contracts awarded by them. They are not required to collect the details of all the shareholders that have invested in a company that has been awarded any particular public contract.

Public contracts are awarded following a transparent and competitive process conducted in compliance with very stringent national and European law. The aim of these rules is to promote an open, competitive and non-discriminatory public procurement regime which delivers best value for money. Public bodies cannot favour or discriminate against particular candidates and there are legal remedies which may be used against any public body infringing these laws. It is the responsibility of each contracting authority to ensure that tenderers comply with all the requirements of the process.

The Deputy will be aware that the reform of public procurement is a key element of the Government's public service reform agenda. The new approach to public procurement involves integrating procurement policy, strategy and sourcing in one office, the Office of Government Procurement, OGP; ensuring a consistent approach to procurement right across the public service; strengthening spending analytics and data management; much greater aggregation of purchasing across public bodies to achieve better value for money; the examination of the specifications set out for goods and services; evaluating demand levels to assess how demand and volume can be reduced; and strengthening supplier and category management.

The OGP is engaged in changing the administration of procurement throughout the public service, ably overseen by my colleague, the Minister of State, to my left. Currently, public service procurement activity is transacted by several hundred contracting authorities across the State. The OGP, together with reformed sector procurement functions in health, education, local government and defence, will enable the public service to speak with one voice to the market for each category of expenditure, ensuring a consistent approach is taken to public expenditure.

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