Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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32. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if he will consider putting in place criteria for the awarding of Government contracts that would ensure these contracts are awarded to those companies that meet sustainability benchmarks; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30967/16]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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In addition to achieving value for money and encouraging SME access to procurement opportunities, the Government is also keen to explore to scope for supporting wider policy objectives including social and environmental clauses in public contracts.

Social clauses can be used where they are targeted at factoring into the procurement process consideration of issues such as employment opportunities, equal opportunities, social inclusion and sustainability.  In order to be compatible with EU law, these conditions must be made known to all interested parties and must not restrict participation by contractors from other Member States.

However, this is a complex area and challenges arise from the need to ensure that:

- value for money is not adversely affected;

- additional costs are not placed on domestic suppliers relative to other potential suppliers;

- contracts are of a minimum scale to absorb the increased administrative requirements; and

- the targeted benefit is capable of being measured and monitored during execution of the contract.

In this context also, care must be taken not to disproportionately impact on SME's bidding for public contracts.

The inclusion of social clauses in the procurement process would appear to be most suited to situations where the benefit could be considered a core requirement and can be directly linked to the contracting authority's policy or strategic plan. A further consideration is the ability of contracting authorities to effectively monitor compliance with the social clause.  This may be more difficult where some of the work is to be performed in another Member State.

The Deputy may be aware that a revised set of EU Directives governing public procurement was transposed into Irish law last May. There is now greater scope and legal clarity in relation to the use of social criteria in the context of an open, competitive and non-discriminatory public procurement regime which delivers best value for money.

In this context, the Office of Government Procurement is assessing the scope for the use of such clauses and will be developing practical guidance to assist contracting authorities using procurement as a driver of wider public policy goals such as sustainability, where appropriate.