Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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114. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the progress his Department has made on social benefit clauses; and the timeframe for inclusion into the public tendering process. [3626/17]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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Whilst the primary focus of public procurement reform has been on 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.

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.

Care must also be taken not to disproportionately impact on SME's bidding for public contracts. If a blanket suite of social benefit clauses was attached to all public procurement opportunities it is likely that this would be ineffective and disproportionately favour larger enterprises and reduce competition in supplying goods and services to the State.

In general, the inclusion of social clauses in a procurement process would appear to be most effective 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. Contracting Authorities are therefore already free to include social benefit clauses in public procurement processes.

In relation to sustainability, comprehensive guidance is available to public authorities assist them in this regard in the "Action Plan on Green Public Procurement", published on 2012, and "Green Procurement Guidance for the Public Sector", published in 2014.  In addition, the Office of Government Procurement is assessing the scope for the use of such clauses and is developing practical guidance to assist contracting authorities using procurement as a driver of wider public policy goals such as sustainability, where appropriate. This practical guidance will be issued shortly.