Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)
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20. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the progress made in improving access to State contracts for Irish firms; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11689/15]

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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Public Procurement is governed by EU and National rules. The aim of these rules is to promote an open, competitive and non-discriminatory public procurement regime which delivers best value for money. It would be a breach of the EU rules for a public body to favour or discriminate against particular candidates on grounds such as nationality, organisational size, etc. and there are legal remedies which may be used against any public body infringing these rules.

In its recently published report "Public Service Spend and Tendering Analysis for 2013", analysis by the Office of Government Procurement (OGP) indicates that 93% of public service procurement expenditure in 2013 was with businesses in the Republic of Ireland.  This finding is based on its analysis of €2.742 billion expenditure across 64 large public service bodies involving over 35,000 suppliers.

It is important to state that open tendering is a two way street and provides Irish companies with opportunities to compete in an EU market estimated to be valued in excess of €2.4 trillion per annum.  The open market regime offers opportunities for Irish companies to win business abroad and many Irish businesses are successful in this regard.  

I would also point out that the OGP works with industry representative bodies to promote the engagement of Irish business in public procurement (including ISME, IBEC, SFA, Chambers Ireland, and CIF) as well as the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, InterTrade Ireland, and Enterprise Ireland.  Last year for example the OGP supported two 'Meet the Buyer' events - one in Belfast and the other in Dublin attended by over 1,100 businesses.  In addition, the OGP proactively launched a campaign to get more businesses to register with e-tenders (the national tendering portal) which resulted in 12,300 new supplier registrations in 2014.

The OGP will continue to work with industry to ensure that winning government business is done in a fair, transparent and accessible way and to ensure that Government procurement policies are business friendly.