Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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309. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the way in which he has addressed the concerns raised by the school supply sector, which believes its businesses cannot survive if excluded from the public procurement process; the action he will take to address these concerns; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33385/15]

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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Following points raised at the PAC in 2014 and in 2015 by the Irish School Arts Supplies Federation (ISASF) with the Committee, the Office of Government Procurement (OGP) has met with the sector representative body to discuss their concerns on two separate occasions.  The OGP currently has no framework agreements or contracts in place for school arts supplies, nor does it have plans at present to address the category of school arts supplies in its publishedprogramme of work.  Any plans which may be developed in the future to address this category will be done in line with Government procurement policy and in particular with Circular 10/14 which enables SME participation, through measures such as lotting strategies, consortia building, reasonable turnover and insurance requirements, etc. in public sector tenders.  These measures have been adopted to ensure that competitive supply market remains in place to support public service buyers in the medium to long term.  It should be noted that the OGP publish on their website the categories of spend they plan to address on a rolling nine month schedule.

In addition, the OGP promotes SME participation in public procurement through events such as Meet the Buyer, Taking Care of Business, Local Enterprise Office events, etc,. and works closely with bodies such as the Department of Jobs Enterprise and Innovation, Enterprise Ireland and InterTradeIreland to enable supplier awareness and skills in tendering through programmes such as the very successful 'Go 2 Tender' and 'Consortia Building' run by InterTradeIreland.