Kevin O'Keeffe (Cork East, Fianna Fail)
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270. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if he will review the area of public procurement in which it is impossible for small businesses in the locality of a Government institution or facility to participate in the tendering process to be awarded the contract to provide goods and services. [38404/16]

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 discriminate against or favour particular candidates on grounds such as locality, nationality, organisation size, etc. and there are legal remedies which may be used against any public body infringing these rules.

However, there is a recognition at EU Level of the need to promote and facilitate SME participation in public procurement. The new EU Directives on Procurement, transposed into Irish law last May, are intended to make it easier for businesses and SMEs to tender for public sector procurement contracts. Measures specifically designed to improve access for SMEs and start-ups include:- financial capacity criterion is now less demanding; it is generally limited to twice contract value;

- eprocurement;

- the discretion to divide public contracts into lots, with the proviso that opting not to divide a contract into lots must be explained in the procurement documents; and

- provision for "consortia bidding" to encourage SME involvement.

A number of these measures had been accelerated into policy in 2014 in advance of the transposition of the new Directives by Circular 10/14, issued by the Office of Government Procurement (OGP). 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 works 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. It does this by facilitating quarterly meetings of an SME Advisory Group, chaired by my colleague, Minister of State Eoghan Murphy who has responsibility for public procurement, so that the voice of Irish SMEs (including ISME, IBEC, SFA, Chambers Ireland, and CIF) can be heard by Government. SMEs are also encouraged to register of the Government's etenders portal so that they can be notified of upcoming tendering opportunities.

The OGP works with the SME industry representative bodies as well as the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, InterTrade Ireland and Enterprise Ireland to promote the engagement of SMEs in public procurement. Evidence of the work and co-operation in the area can be seen in some of the following events organised by InterTrade Ireland and supported by the OGP in 2016:

- thirteen "Go-2-Tender" workshops attended by 179 businesses; and

- two "Meet the Buyer" events were held in 2016, one in Belfast and a new Regional/Opportunity driven approach was piloted in Cork. These events were attended by over 900 businesses and buyers from across the public sector, North and South, which focused on the opportunities for SMEs with major public sector buyers across the island

Similar events took place in 2015 and more are planned for 2017.  

Minister of State Murphy launched the OGPs in September. The data analysed indicates that 95% of the State's expenditure is with firms within the State and the majority of the spend analysed is with SMEs. 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. The OGP has also conducted an analysis of the 94 Framework Agreements it has concluded to date. The data shows that 68% of Framework members are SMEs and 63% of the Frameworks had multiple lots, facilitating SME access. These findings show that SMEs are successful in Public Procurement competitions in Ireland and the initiatives outlined will ensure they continue to compete and be successful in future Public Tendering opportunities.