Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)

I thank all the Senators who contributed to the debate. It is great to see such interest in this area. It is great to see so many ideas being put to the floor. I will address the comments. I off huge thanks to Senators Byrne, Davitt, Craughwell, Noonan, Murphy, O'Reilly and Higgins for their interest in this and their welcome comments. I have categorised the feedback I received on three key themes: SME access; suppliers, supply chains and engagement with suppliers; and the social, ethical and green impact. I might speak directly to some of Senator Higgins's contributions afterwards.

I am so keen to address the SME impact. I came from the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment to this Department and my own background is in business. I am keen to make sure that we give Irish SMEs the opportunity to win a slice of the business that government is doing. Billions of euros worth of business is done by government every year and it is important that SMEs get the opportunity to do that. We are building on that message through direct outreach to them. We have had a number of engagement events throughout the country. We had a Dublin regional event and a regional event in Cork, and we have a regional event in the Midlands happening with exactly that in mind.

It is great that Senator Cathal Byrne mentioned Kent Stainless steel. It is important that we showcase successful suppliers and people who are success stories. We have done this in the Office of Government Procurement with Green IT, for example, which a business based in County Kildare that won a substantial government contract and which as a result of that have been able to upscale and upskill its workforce. That is important. The vast majority of all local authorities have procurement officers. I recently met with the Dublin local authority procurement network, which consists of procurement officers for each of our four local authorities in Dublin. It would be fantastic to see that kind of collaboration happening on a regional basis with procurement officers because they are the link between the local authority, local enterprise office and often the local chamber of commerce when it comes to making sure businesses are sourcing locally. My own South Dublin Chamber of Commerce prides itself on the fact that every time we go to an event, they say that everything we see there and everything they have purchased has been sourced locally. That is important that we do that to support our local SMEs.

My Department is running its first ever event on 11 November to directly engage with both suppliers and buyers to make sure that we are hearing their feedback. Ultimately, what is most important is that SMEs now contribute to our consultation, which is still open, to make sure that we are getting their feedback. We can use that feedback to help shape Ireland's first ever national public procurement strategy. It is probably more important than ever from a supplier’s perspective. Senator Murphy mentioned Covid-19 and what happened in the post-pandemic era with the disruption of supply chains. In a world that we are talking about tariffs, it is even more important that we have secure supply chains and a lot of that comes down to local supply chains so that we are sourcing within in Ireland where we can and that ties in with the SME access perspective.

Senator Craughwell raised an example, as did Senator Murphy, relating to where they felt centralised sourcing did not work. We have a use it or explain why model if it does not work because a better, cheaper, higher quality fix can be found locally. People should tell us that because it is important. We have fantastic account managers in our OGP who are the relationship builders between Government and suppliers. If there is information that they should know that they might not be aware of and that should be in the mix, please do come and tell us; it is really important. Our sourcing teams do incredible work and are saving the State an awful lot of money by doing it. The social, ethical and green impact is an important issue. As Senator Noonan has rightly said, today is International Day for Biodiversity. I am pleased we will publish an updated policy on green public procurement shortly. That is a huge area of emphasis for us in government, and in the OGP. Ethical procurement is something we are really focused on. Not only are we focused on it but we are trained on it. All of our OGP staff have undergone training in ethical procurement. We are on the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply, CIPS, corporate ethical register and we have received that Kitemark to show that our people out there doing an awful lot of purchasing on behalf of the State are doing it in a way that they always have a mind to ethical procurement. That is something we can be proud of as a State.

From a social impact perspective, the EU directives do allow a bit of flexibility on this, which is important. When I spoke to public procurement officers on local authorities, they said they use that section of the directive regularly. Our Office of Government Procurement does it. We have had a number of events where we have not just sourced locally, but we have sourced ethically in terms of social impact and the companies we have chosen to cater our events by making sure that we are giving back to underemployed, disadvantaged areas and people with intellectual disabilities. We are always making sure that we are giving fair access to other companies and social enterprises.

Senator Conor Murphy spoke about the board that he chaired in the North. I assure him we have something similar here, namely the Public Procurement Advisory Council where we bring together specialists in this area from the private and public sector. We are really using their expertise to help shape the direction of public procurement in Ireland.

Senator Cathal Byrne mentioned the opportunity presented by the upcoming EU Presidency. Our sourcing teams are doing tremendous work in sourcing a lot of what Members will see regarding accommodation, the buses and the events that will be happening as part of the Presidency when Ireland holds it. It is quite likely that Ireland will be holding the pen during our Presidency when it comes to the EU review on procurement strategies. That will be a huge opportunity for us to have influence on that, which is going to be really positive.

I commended the support of Senator Higgins on the work of the OGP. The Senator recently hosted a webinar as well, which was really good. As she said, I am familiar with her Bill. She stated that when procurement goes wrong, we hear about it.. I absolutely agree with that. It is very much the case. When we hear these news stories that none of us is happy about, it is often because procurement is not done correctly or because tenders are not written correctly. That is where the OGP can provide some fantastic support, be that through our frameworks where we can support agencies or departments to purchase what they need, our policies, the likes of our eTenders platforms or guidance around how to write effective tenders because changing the tenders means moving the goalposts and that means changing the amount of money used. That is not what we want. We want a very transparent, very open, and very fair public procurement process in Ireland.

I would like to say a huge "Thank you" to the staff in the OGP, who have absolutely dedicated their careers to making sure that happens, and to improving things in this space. I am accompanied by two assistant secretaries from the OGP who effectively run our two divisions on policy and implementation. I also have Edwina Steele, one of our senior officials, with me as well. I offer huge thanks to Anne Stewart, David O’Sullivan, Edwina Steele and all of the staff in the OGP who are, day in and day out, working to save our State money and to deliver better value for money for our taxpayers.