Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, United Left)
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147. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if he will provide an update on the public consultation carried out in 2014 in relation to the transposition of new European Union guidelines on public procurement, including an update on whether and when public submissions will be made publicly available. [16672/15]

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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On 28 March, 2014, the European Commission published three new Directives as a collective reform of the existing EU regime for public procurement under the existing provisions of Directive 2004/17/EU - coordinating the procurement procedures of entities operating in the water, energy, transport and postal services sectors and Directive 2004/18/EU - on the coordination of procedures for the award of public works contracts, public supply contracts and public service contracts. 

The three new Directives, including the Directive referred to by the Deputy are:

- 2014/23/EU - on the award of concession contracts

- 2014/24/EU- on public procurement and repealing Directive 2004/18/EU

- 2014/25/EU - on procurement by entities operating in the water, energy, transport and postal services sectors and repealing Directive 2004/17/EC

The three Directives require to be transposed into national law by all EU Member States by April 2016. In this regard, the Office of Government Procurement, which is under the aegis of my Department, is progressing the process of transposition into Irish law.

A public consultation process in respect of the three new EU public procurement Directives was initiated at the end of October 2014 and 43 submissions were received by end January 2015. 

A wide number of issues was raised across the submissions received and these issues are undergoing internal consideration at present, in the context of overall transposition process.

The submissions will be published on the OGP website www.procurement.iewhen the process of internal consideration is fully completed.