Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)
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439. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government if his attention has been drawn to the fact that some local authorities publish the details of the companies that win their tenders, while others do not because they state it is commercially sensitive; and if he will instruct all local authorities to publish the details of the companies that win their tenders. [13375/17]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Publication of award information relating to tenders is required under both EU and National Procurement rules.

Under EU Directive 2014/24/EU and the European Union (Award of Public Authority Contracts) Regulations 2016, contracting authorities that have awarded a public contract or concluded a framework agreement must publish a notice of the results of the award procedure no later than 30 days after the award of the contract or the conclusion of the framework agreement. Award notices must include the name and address of winning tenderer/framework members and the price of the winning tender. This Directive relates to public contracts exceeding the EU threshold of €209,000 (exclusive of VAT) for local authority contracts.

The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform Circular 10/14 also requires that buyers publish all Contract Award Notices over €25,000 on the eTenders website on completion of the award. This is a separate step to publication required under the EU Directive and Regulations. This provision came into effect from 1 August 2014.

In addition, under section 8 of the Freedom of Information Act 2014 each local authority is required to publish a FOI Publication Scheme that includes procurement information including a link to all current tender competitions on the eTenders website and, on a quarterly basis, details of public contracts awarded for values over €25,000 (exclusive of VAT) including the name of the winning contractor and the value of the contract. This requirement came into effect on 14 April 2016.

The Local Government Strategic Procurement Centre, based in the Local Government Management Agency, is actively engaging with the Procurement Officers designated in each local authority to ensure full compliance with the requirements of procurement law and policy.

Overall lead responsibility for public sector procurement matters rests with my colleague, the Minister for Public Expenditure & Reform.