Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail)
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115. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the procurement framework agreements that are in place in the education sector; the organisation that operates each of these agreements on behalf of other institutions; the services or facilities that are covered by these agreements; the estimated expenditure covered by these agreements; the benefits to each of the particular participating institutions in these agreements; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31715/17]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy is aware, the Office of Government Procurement (OGP) and the procurement hubs in the Health, Education, Local Authority and Defence sectors are the main sourcing organisations given responsibility under the Procurement Reform Plan to establish centralised procurement framework agreements.  These framework agreements and contracts are available to all public sector bodies to contract goods and services.

The centralised procurement sourcing model consists of sixteen categories of expenditure, under which framework agreements are established.  Of these, eight categories of common goods and services are procured by the OGP. Four sectors – Health, Education, Local Government and Defence – retain sector sourcing functions to procure the remaining categories that they are the main users of, on behalf of the State. The framework agreements and contracts established under these categories are available to the wider public service.

The Education Procurement Service (EPS) acts as the single centralised Education Sector Hub, and is responsible for procurement of the following categories of goods and services; Agriculture and Veterinary; Laboratory Equipment; and Library materials. It also procures education-specific goods and services for the education sector. The framework agreements put in place for these categories may be predominately used within the education sector but are made available to the whole public service. The framework agreements currently operated under the EPS categories are listed in the following table:

To date the EPS has estimated achieved forecast secured savings from sourcing exercises of:

- €2.4m in 2014

- €2.8m in 2015

- €3.1m in 2016

In relation to framework agreements outside the categories which the EPS has responsibility for, it is a matter for the OGP and its sector partners to put in place framework agreements which the entire public sector, including education, may draw from.

In terms of the benefits available from centralised procurement, public service bodies benefit from price reduction based on aggregated demand, the professionalism of the procurement process, increased certainty and compliant sourcing solutions. In addition, procurement reform is a key element of the Government's overall reform programme and is aimed at delivering increased value for money, more accurate and timely data and improvement in the capacity and capability of procurement across the public service. 

The central procurement framework agreements and contracts established by the OGP, and used under each of the different categories of goods and services, including those that the EPS is responsible for, have been designed to optimise benefits including savings to the State through the strategic aggregation of its buying power. 

Given the budgetary pressures facing the public service, public procurement enabled savings can support the dual objectives of meeting our fiscal targets and of maintaining/improving services for the public. The strengthening of procurement professionalisation will in turn provide public bodies who use the contracts and framework agreements with increased certainty and reduced risk by providing them with compliant sourcing solutions.