Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)
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7. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the total value of goods and services purchased by the State and its agencies in 2011, 2012 and to date in 2013; the way the results of tendering competitions and details of the competing firms at national, local Government and State agency level are published to ensure that there is full transparency and accountability in the public tendering process; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [49517/13]

Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)
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There has been a general welcome for the establishment of the office of Government procurement and the Minister has previously referred to the fact that we spend in the region of €9 billion per annum on public procurement. My question reflects the concerns of the Small Firms Association, SFA, and of small businesses generally, regarding the tendering processes under the new system. It is likely that small, indigenous companies will find the going much tougher because there will be a bundling of contracts which will make it more difficult for them to compete. Concerns have been also expressed around the issue of transparency.

I must declare an interest here. I am the director of a number of community companies which would be involved in tendering for Government contracts. My question reflects the views of my colleagues in that context.

Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
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The Government is undertaking a significant reform programme in the public procurement sector. Part of this will involve a move towards centralisation of data collection in the area of procurement activity. Currently, public service procurement activity is transacted by several hundred contracting authorities throughout the State. Data relating to these individual contracts are not currently collected centrally and, therefore, they are not available for the Deputy. It is planned that under the new office of government procurement, OGP, a sizeable data collection project will be launched. That is crucial in order that we have full knowledge of the entire spend, which has not been the case up to now.

The national procurement service, NPS, does, however, collect statistics from across the public sector on all contracts in excess of the EU threshold where contract award notices were published on the national eTenders website. The data compiled represent a response rate of approximately 75% from all public sector bodies that were required to submit returns to the NPS to compile this data. The data have been collected from contracting authorities in respect of competitive processes that were in excess of the EU threshold and where contract award notices were published. In 2010 the value of these contracts for goods and services was just over €3 billion, and in 2011 the value was just under €2.3 billion. The figures for 2012 are currently being compiled and cannot be provided to the Deputy at this juncture.

It is a legal requirement that contracting authorities publish certain information on contracts awarded within 48 days of the award in the Official Journal of the European Union, OJEU. Particulars, including the type of contract, the procedure and award criteria used, the number of tenders received, the name of the successful tenderer, the value of the contract or the range of tender prices, and justification for the negotiated procedure, if used, are published. The necessary information can be submitted electronically to the OJEU through the eTenders website.

Additional information not given on the floor of the House

Before signing any contract above the EU threshold, the awarding authority must write to all qualified tenderers to inform them of the result of the evaluation. This is called the standstill notice. In this notice, tenderers are informed of the name of the winning tenderer and how their tender compared to that of the winning tenderer. The Irish regulations governing the standstill notice were transposed from the 2007 EU new remedies directive under SI 130/2010. Under these regulations the standstill notice must give sufficient information to enable an unsuccessful bidder to decide whether there are grounds for seeking a review.

Number and value of contracts

Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)
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I welcome the Minister of State's comments about the data collection structures. Does he know how this is panning out in the context of the performance of smaller Irish companies, community-owned structures and so on? Is it inevitable that they will have to enter bundled contracts, perhaps with foreign operators?

What is the budget of the NPS? The Minister of State appointed four distinguished leaders to the organisation - Mr. Eoin Lonergan, Mr. Vincent Campbell, Ms Kathryn Smith and Mr. Brian Brogan, who was responsible for setting up the Health Information and Quality Authority. How many staff work in the office? One or two distinguished local government officials have been seconded to the new headquarters.

Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy has rightly raised the significant issue of the concern of many businesses about whether they will be shut out of the new procedure. It is crucially important that people know that the procedure we are following is the best international procedure through which they can win a greater percentage of the pie. It will inevitably mean that businesses will have to come together and pitch for contracts. I have said to the director of the NPS that in the future, as we move towards framework contracts in which a number of operators are engaged, there should be multiple service users and instead of having only one contract for a large domestic or international plc, we need to have a range of businesses involved, including SMEs, indigenous and international companies and those involved in foreign direct investment. That is the way to go. We need to have that to make sure the SME sector gets the support this significant budget can provide.

Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)
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I again welcome the Minister of State's comments. It is critical to ensure ongoing close invigilation of this service to make sure our businesses do well. The Minister set a target of €500 million in savings over three years. How does he know that amount will be saved?

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Independent)
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An Enterprise-Ireland-supported initiative, TenderScout.com, assists SMEs in coming together to make joint proposals to increase the 10% of domestic public sector contracts these companies currently have. Has the Minister of State met the promoter of that site, Mr. Tony Corrigan? How could his Department engage with that company to maximise the drawdown by Irish companies?

Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
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I have no difficulty meeting the individual. I meet hundreds of people engaged in this area and our office is open to that.

Deputy Naughten is correct, but the bottom line is that 70% of SMEs are not even registered on the eTenders website. How the hell they are going to know about this unless they are on the portal that explains the work that is coming up? This is a fundamental question. I am delighted this issue is being raised in the House in order that we can ask businesses to please register on the website and then they will know about every contract ranging in price from €3,000 to €3 million. There is no reason they cannot pitch for them. The portal is important because all of this information is shared on it. If we need to provide more help, I am more than happy to do that.

The Minister set a target of €500 million. We have to reach that target. I am pleased to announce that next year's target is €127 million, and that must be accounted for through savings in the new office. The staff know they must do this. There must be independent verification that those savings have occurred because it is crucial to the deficit reduction project and expenditure profiles that we make sure they are realised.