Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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233. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if community-led companies for construction and maintenance contracts and so on can be included in social contracts as part of the selection of contractors for the delivery of social projects. [14182/20]

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Under normal conditions of competition, ‘sheltered workshops’ or social enterprises whose main aim is to integrate disadvantaged people in the workplace might not be able to obtain contracts. Under the EU Procurement Directives, contracting authorities are able to restrict some tendering procedures to ‘sheltered workshops’ and social enterprises. To participate in reserved procurement procedures, 30% of the company’s employees must be disadvantaged. Contracting authorities may also reserve certain contracts for health, social and cultural services to organisations such as not-for-profit organisations which meet certain conditions, namely the pursuit of a public service mission linked to the delivery of the relevant services and reinvestment of profits in the organisation.

The appropriateness of including social considerations needs to be examined on a contract-by-contract basis and there needs to be sufficient flexibility to allow each individual contracting authority to decide what, how, and when social considerations can be used. It is a matter for individual contracting authorities to ensure that their public procurement activities are discharged in line with procurement rules and procedures. The Office of Government Procurement ("OGP") supports contracting authorities in this regard by making them aware of their legal and policy obligations in respect to public procurement.

The OGP promotes the inclusion of social considerations, including reserved contracts and sheltered workshops. To further support the incorporation of social considerations into public procurement, in October 2019 the OGP published Circular 20/2019: Promoting the use of Environmental and Social Considerations in Public Procurement.The Circular highlights the possibilities for Departments to deliver wider social and environmental aims through public procurement including in relation to employment and training opportunities for disadvantaged groups, disability access, promoting social inclusion and social enterprises.

To help policy makers and practitioners understand how procurement can be used to facilitate the advancement of existing social policy objectives as well as the wider context and implications of including them in particular procurement projects, the OGP published an Information Note on incorporating social considerations into public procurement in December 2018 which is available on ogp.gov.ie. A cross Departmental Social Considerations Advisory Group was also established in March 2019.

These developments promote and facilitate the inclusion of social considerations in a structured manner and are aimed at helping policy makers and procurement practitioners understand how procurement can be used to support advancement of existing social policy objectives, the wider context and the implications of including them in procurement projects.