Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)

I thank Deputies for their engagement on the Bill and in particular Deputy Farrell who worked on it. It has been useful to have the opportunity to discuss public procurement on the floor of the Dáil, important considerations for it and how the Government can ensure better services for the people who come here to live and work and who are born and live here. It is important that we make sure that public procurement is in the best interests of all our citizens.

Public procurement is a key priority for the Government. It is vital to ensure we deliver better public services for everyone. As Minister of State with responsibility for public procurement, digitalisation and e-government, I will take this opportunity to close by sharing with the House my vision and ambition for public procurement. Before I do so, I will respond to some of the comments made on the floor of the Dáil.

I will start with Deputy Farrell's remarks on social clauses and local authorities. I assure the Deputy that I am engaged with the Local Government Management Association, LGMA, and I have directly met three of the four procurement officers in the three Dublin local authorities. I have also met local authorities while I have been doing roadshows up and down the country and I remain open to meeting more. I have been taking on board the feedback they are giving me from the ground. They are the people telling me that they are very mindful of the social clauses and they are pushing for more and more clarity on what social clauses mean. While the Deputy's experience may be different in different local authorities, from what I have seen, they have been really engaged in this. I am pleased with that.

From a data perspective, on the points the Deputy made around key performance indicators, KPIs - whether it is delivered on time and on budget - I agree we need to see more happening in this space and that will be part of what happens through our data collection and our national procurement strategy.

Deputy O'Reilly mentioned the benefits of Committee Stage of Bills. I absolutely agree. However, the EU is now revising its directives, so if we go to Committee Stage and make whatever changes we make to the language of the Bill, we will still be left in a situation where the Bill may contravene EU legislation when it is enacted. That is a clear concern.

Deputy O'Reilly also spoke about collective bargaining, as did Deputy Nash, and employers' rights. I take that on board. Some of that was already provided to us through our public submission. Deputy Nash talked about how we can use public procurement to drive better outcomes for SMEs. As I previously served in the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, that is something I am keen to do. That is why I have gone out and met SMEs and taken advice from the SME procurement advisory council. We also have the new public procurement advisory council within our central bodies, which is also providing that information to me. We are getting advice from both the SMEs and public buyers, which is important.

Every year, as has been said, billions of euro are spent by the State on goods, services and works. This brings obligations, but it also brings huge opportunity. Public procurement has significant potential to support SMEs and, with that, regional development and the wider economy. The awarding of a public contract can act as a springboard for emerging micro-enterprises and SMEs to expand and export. I was delighted to meet some of the SMEs in that boat in recent months.

The Department continues to work to ensure value for money is at the heart of all decision-making. That is not partisan and does not relate to the side of the House you sit on; it is what the Government is committed to doing. I am keen to use this strategy to explore ways to promote efficient and effective public procurement that achieves the best possible value for money for the people of Ireland. By doing this, I will also look at social clauses and environmental clauses, which Deputy Nash mentioned, and we will shortly be bringing new green public procurement guidelines to Cabinet. That will be in the next month or so, I hope before the recess. They are with the Minister, Deputy Chambers, at the moment and we hope to get them through because we need to make sure we are doing as much as possible in digital, green and social and also when it comes to transparency and value for money.

Ireland has implemented EU regulations on e-forms and that captures much of the information this Bill seeks to. The European Commission’s focus is, like our own, on the simplification of the current complex legal code and a reorientation of procurement to act as a tool for steering investment and increasing competitiveness. That is what I want to see as Minister of State. I want to make sure that we are using our public procurement process to make Ireland a more competitive place and to give our SMEs a bigger slice of that pie while always protecting our transparency and having value for money at the core.

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