Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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Question 188: To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the progress that has been made on amending procurement procedures to enable contracts to be broken down to allow small and medium indigenous businesses to tender for Government projects, and to include social clauses to promote the employment and training up of local labour. [25853/11]

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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Guidelines from my Department require that public bodies conduct the public procurement function in a way that facilitates and does not place barriers to participation of small and medium enterprises. As one measure to achieve this, the guidance advises that the sub-dividing of procurement requirements into "lots" should be considered by contracting authorities where it would be appropriate and practical and can be done without compromising efficiency and value for money.

As regards promoting employment of local labour, the award of public contracts is governed by EU Treaty principles and Directives on public procurement. The provisions of the EU Directives allow contracting authorities to attach social conditions to the performance of contracts, provided these are compatible with EU law. In this regard, EU law requires that such conditions must be made known to all interested parties and must not restrict participation by contractors from other Member States. Specifying such conditions is a matter for the contracting authority concerned, having regard to the foregoing considerations.