Patrick Nulty (Dublin West, Labour)
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Question 286: To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the number of State contracts which were awarded to private companies for each year from 2006 to 2011 inclusive; the number of these companies which were registered for tax purposes here; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10838/12]

Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
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The statistics requested by Deputy Nulty are not available, as they are not collated centrally. The National Procurement Service (NPS), based in the Office of Public Works, is responsible for eProcurement and for the operation of the eTenders public procurement portal (www.etenders.gov.ie). On average 5000 tenders for the procurement of goods, services and works are advertised on eTenders every year. The overall procurement spend by the public sector amounts to an estimated value of between €14 and €16 billion per year.

Since 2009, the NPS has been responsible for producing annual statistical information in relation to above-EU threshold procurement activity by the Irish public sector and providing these statistics to the European Commission. The thresholds valid from January 2010 to December 2011 above which tenders must be advertised in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) are as follows:

The information that is available currently for the years 2006-2010 relates to above-EU threshold contracts only and is contained in the tabular statement below. Data in respect of 2011 will not be available until later this year. The Deputy should be aware that the figures contained in the table relates to the number of contracts placed which were above the EU Threshold for the year in question and must not be interpreted as indicative statistics for the overall procurement spend. It must also be borne in mind that these statistics relate only to above threshold procurements, where contract award notices were published, and where the nationality of the winning tenderer was disclosed. In the case of all public service contracts with a value of €10,000 or more (inclusive of VAT) within a 12 month period, the contractor is required to provide a valid tax clearance certificate before payment can issue.

For example, when considering the year 2009, €2.8 billion worth of expenditure was advertised in the Official Journal; out of the €15 billion public procurement spend in that year. Of this €2.8billion, 12% went to non-domestic companies. The NPS estimates that less than 5% of the overall spend went to non-domestic suppliers, as a significant proportion of the overall procurement spend is below the EU threshold and is also below the threshold for advertising on eTenders (the eTenders threshold was €50,000 in 2009).

The figures for 2008 are broadly similar, but indicate that a higher number of above-threshold tenders were advertised in the OJEU. The EU Commission has agreed that the figures for 2008 can be taken to indicate, "about 95% of all procurement by value was from domestic suppliers".

It should be noted that the statistics do not distinguish between companies in the UK and those based in Northern Ireland, so of the contracts going "abroad", many of the contracts may have stayed on the island of Ireland.

It should also be noted also that all the statistics relating to non-domestic suppliers relate to suppliers with an address in countries other than Ireland and do not distinguish between European and non-European suppliers.

In a recent survey conducted by the National Procurement Service and sent to all registered suppliers on eTenders 20% of respondents said that they had won public procurement contracts in Northern Ireland and the United Kingdom and 15% said that they had won public procurement contracts in other member states.

ABOVE THRESHOLD CONTRACTS AWARDED TO IRISH AND NON-DOMESTIC SUPPLIERS 2006-2010