David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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312. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the efforts being made to open up State procurement contracts to smaller companies and SMEs by breaking down contracts; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29651/16]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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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.  There is, however, a recognition at EU level to promote and facilitate SME participation in public procurement.

The Government acknowledges the significant role that SMEs play in the Irish economy and is committed to ensuring that SMEs are fully engaged with public sector procurement. In this regard and in accordance with the Programme for Government, my colleague, Minister of State Eoghan Murphy chairs the SME Advisory Group, a group consisting of industry representatives of the SME Sector including ISME, IBEC, SFA, Chambers Ireland, and CIF and as well as relevant State Bodies such as the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, InterTrade Ireland and Enterprise Ireland and the Office of Government Procurement (OGP). It should also be noted that the OGP's "" which was launched by Minister of State Murphy last month indicated that the majority of the spend analysed is with SMEs and equally important, in terms of SME access to government business, is the report's highlighting that, in the majority of spend areas, the typical tender value is less €100,000.

Circular 10/14: Initiatives to assist SMEs in Public Procurement issued by my Department in April 2014 set out a number measures aimed at promoting SME involvement in public sector procurement including encouraging more on-line open tendering, reducing bidders' turnover requirements, promoting the use of proportional and reasonable insurance requirements.  This circular also encourages public bodies to break large contracts down into lots where reasonable to do so. This enables smaller businesses to compete for these smaller elements of a larger contract. This has to be done in a way however that does not expose the State to undue risk or significant management overheads.

The OGP works with industry representative bodies to promote the engagement of SMEs in public procurement as well as the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, InterTrade Ireland and Enterprise Ireland.  Practical examples of the type of strong interagency work and co-operation is the OGP's support for the InterTrade Ireland 'Meet the Buyer' events in Belfast last June and Cork on 19 October 2016.

For further details of the various initiatives that have been put in place since 2013 to facilitate SME access to Public Procurement, I would point the Deputy to the "published on 7th January which is on the OGP website.

In conclusion, the reform of public procurement across the public service is on-going and will continue to provide opportunities to the SME sector to win business.  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.