Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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92. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform his position regarding the negative consequences of the national procurement service; the average size of a supplier to a State agency in 2012 and in each of the past five years; the total number of suppliers to State agencies in 2012 and in each of the past five years; the average size in monetary terms of State agency contracts in 2012 and in each of the past five years; the number of contracts supplied by firms located outside the State in 2012 and in each of the past five years; and if he has undertaken any research into the impact of the policies of the national procurement service on the small to medium-sized enterprise sector. [43313/13]

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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I am keenly aware that public procurement can be an important source of business for Irish small and medium enterprises (SMEs). I am also aware of the need for Departments and Offices to make every effort to contain and reduce all administrative costs. The current programme of reform will lead to reductions in the cost of goods and services; better procurement services at lower cost; increased levels of professionalism among staff responsible for procurement; and better performance management of the central procurement function.

A significant element of the procurement reform programme will be 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. The size of these individual contracts or the size of the suppliers who win these contracts is not data that is currently collected centrally and therefore is 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.

The table sets out details on all contracts across the public sector, which were above the EU Threshold, where contract award notices were published, where the nationality of the winning tenderer was disclosed and which were published on eTenders in the period 2008 to 2011. The data compiled represents an approximate 75% response rate from all public sector bodies who were requested to submit returns to the National Procurement Service in order to compile this data. It should be noted that the figures for 2012 are currently being compiled and as such cannot be provided to the Deputy. I am informed that the above data has been collect from contracting authorities in respect of competitive processes:

i) which were above the EU Threshold,

ii) where contract award notices were published,

iii) where the nationality of the winning tenderer was disclosed.

In order to assist SMEs my department has issued guidelines (Circular 10/10) that require public bodies to promote participation of SMEs in the award of public contracts. The key provisions of the guidance include:

- supplies and general services contracts with an estimated value of €25,000 or more to be advertised on the www.etenders.gov.ie website;

- less use of "restrictive" tendering procedures and greater use of "open" tendering;

- ensuring that the levels set by contracting authorities for suitability criteria are justified and proportionate to the needs of the contract; and

- sub-dividing larger requirements into lots where this is practical and can be done without compromising efficiency and value for money.

In addition my Department is keen to streamline procurement processes – consistent with its value for money, legal, transparency and probity objectives. In order to reduce the costs involved in participating or conducting the procurement process, the National Procurement Service as part of the new Office of Government Procurement is promoting standardisation and simplification of the public procurement function. It has published a suite of model tendering and contract documents which will help both businesses and buyers to reduce administrative costs.

The National Procurement Service is focussed on positive measures aimed at ensuring that SMEs are able to take full advantage of the public procurement opportunities that arise and are available to them. For example the NPS facilitate seminars for SMEs which cover all the issues relating to competing for public procurement contracts, including: Public Procurement regulations, accessing the market opportunities, the tendering process and general guidance on how companies should approach the preparation of tender. A number of seminars were also delivered to ISME and to Chambers of Commerce. Workshops were also delivered on public procurement opportunities in association with Enterprise Ireland and InterTrade Ireland. The NPS has also produced a leaflet "Top Tendering Tips for Public Sector Contracts" which is freely available.

In order to encourage greater SME participation the National Procurement Service, over the past three years, has conducted a targeted programme of education for suppliers who wish to learn more about doing business with the Irish Public Service. This programme consists of seminars, workshops and large scale 'meet the buyer' events hosted nationwide. To date the NPS has facilitated workshops and presented at seminars to over 4,500 SMEs nationwide. Parallel with these events the NPS also works closely with business representative bodies such as ISME and IBEC to provide briefings for their members.