Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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281. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the position regarding the programme for Government commitment (details supplied) and each measure adopted to date. [40834/16]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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The Programme for a Partnership Government recognises the importance of the SME Sector to the economy and has tasked the Office of Government Procurement (OGP) to continue to develop measures to support SMEs in accessing the public procurement market.

In this regard, the OGP engages industry representative bodies ISME, IBEC, SFA, CIF and Chambers Ireland through the SME Working Group to exchange views and identify solutions to obstacles. The meetings, in accordance with the Programme for Government, are chaired by Minister of State Eoghan Murphy. Other government bodies which attend this are the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, Enterprise Ireland, InterTradeIreland and the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation.

The OGP also works with industry representative bodies in relation to supporting "Meet the Buyer" events. These events attract significant interest from suppliers and buyers from across the public sector, North and South, and focus on the opportunities for SMEs with major public sector buyers across the island. In 2016 there were two events, one in Belfast and one in Cork, which 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.

It should also be pointed out that the OGP transposed the EU Public Sector Procurement Directive which amongst other things is aimed at opening up opportunities for small businesses, including micro business, that want to tender for public contracts by, for example, encouraging more on-line open tendering, reducing bidders' turnover requirements, promoting the use of proportional and reasonable insurance requirements, breaking larger contracts into lots. Many of these measures had been fast tracked by Circular 10/14, issued by the OGP in April 2014.

The Public Service Spend and Tendering Analysis Report for 2014, published by the OGP and launched by Minister of State Murphy in September, indicates that 95% of the analysed expenditure is with firms with a base in the State and the majority of the spend analysed is with SMEs. In addition the OGP conducted an analysis of the 94 Framework Agreements it has in place which shows that 68% of Framework members are SMEs and 63% of the Frameworks had multiple lots, facilitating SME access.

The OGP is continuing 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 SME friendly.