Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
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Question 173: To ask the Minister for Finance the steps that have been taken to deliver centralised and specialised procurement as set out in Building Ireland's Smart Economy - A Framework for Sustainable Economic Renewal 2009 to 2014; the money that has been saved by this measure; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17631/09]

Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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The National Public Procurement Policy Unit (NPPOU) has been established in the Office of Public Works. The NPPOU will manage the purchase of goods and services common to all areas of the public service, e.g. office equipment, furniture and fittings, fuel, electricity, printing, stationery and office supplies, uniforms and transport fleets. Staff seconded to the Unit will be required to have an appropriate level of knowledge and experience of public procurement. The NPPOU will deliver savings from leveraging the public service's buying power and administrative efficiencies arising from the elimination of tendering for similar goods and services by a wide range of public service bodies. A target of €25 million in savings for 2009 has been set.

The NPPOU will be the main driver in the development of eProcurement in the public sector. In fulfilment of the Government's eProcurement Strategy, the Department of Finance has been responsible to date for the development of an eTenders system, under which 2,100 contracting authorities and 48,800 suppliers have registered as users. It is intended that the new Unit will assume this responsibility. It is envisaged that the new Unit will introduce a fully integrated end to end system inclusive of eTenders and eEvaluation. E-Auctions will also be developed by the NPPOU; to that end, a tender for electricity for Central Government Departments will be conducted through eAuction on a pilot basis in the coming weeks.