Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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25. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the progress made to date by the Social Clauses Project Group he established in June 2014. [38186/14]

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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Social clauses in contracts place obligations on suppliers to perform actions focussed on broader policy considerations. They can be used in public procurement in cases where they are targeted at factoring into the procurement process consideration of social issues such as employment opportunities, equal opportunities and social inclusion.  In order to be compatible with EU law, they must be made known to all interested parties at tender stage and must not restrict participation by contractors from other Member States.

On 9 June I announced the establishment of a Social Clauses Project Group to be led by the Office of Government Procurement (OGP) to pro-actively look at projects with a view to including social clauses to ensure those awarded contracts contribute to employment or training opportunities for long term unemployed.

Specific projects that are currently in planning and are deemed potentially suitable for the inclusion of employment opportunities and social inclusion will be identified and targeted to maximise the potential opportunities from these projects.

The Project group has the following functions:

- Departments with responsibility for employment and training will identify the important social considerations and actively assist the procuring bodies and successful tenderers through the provision of training and accreditation,

- the OGP will assist departments/agencies in the design of the social clause most suited to the specific contract,

- the procuring body will monitor the impact of the social clause(s),

- the OGP will collate this information.

I have asked the Office of Government Procurment to review this approach after 12 months and then to issue guidance. The objective is to learn from the practical experience of the pilot projects, as well as from the experience of other jurisdictions, in order to develop a robust social procurement framework that is effective.

To date the Social Clauses Group has met twice; on 10 July and 11 September.  A range of priority areas to be addressed by the inclusion of social clauses in public contracts have been identified including assisting the long-term unemployed, training and apprenticeships. These priority areas have been forwarded to the relevant procurement sectors with a view to identifying potential projects where social clauses can be usefully inserted.