Mairéad Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)
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76. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if his Department and any commercial or non-commercial State bodies and private entities subsidised by 50% or more of public funding under the aegis of his Department have implemented social clauses in their public procurement contracts in the past three years (details supplied); and if so, the nature of these social clauses. [39052/20]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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In line with requirements, my Department maintains a contracts register for contracts in excess of €25,000. Many of the contracts procured by the Department and on that register over the period in question, are for specialised equipment (e.g. for meteorological purposes) or for ICT licensing arrangements and were not always conducive to social clauses.

Social clauses have been included in some below-threshold procurement contracts in the period in question. A number of contracts in the facilities management area, for example, include social clauses as per the Department's Universal Design and Access Policy and associated Action Plan. The Department has liaised with the OPW on introducing numerous improvements to the accessibility of our offices in line with this policy and plan. Furthermore, Office of Government Procurement (OGP) frameworks, which include social criteria, have been used by my Department during this period e.g. under the transport framework, 10% of the taxi fleet must be wheelchair accessible.

My Department is currently finalising a three-year Corporate Procurement Plan (CPP) and this will take account of the requirement for social and green public procurement to be incorporated into tender processes and contracts. The finalised CPP will reflect the Department's Accessibility Plan to ensure that the principle of ‘accessibility for all’ will be factored into the contracts entered into.

In relation to State bodies under the aegis of the Department or private entities in receipt of public funding from the Department, such bodies are responsible for their own compliance with procurement requirements. My Department does not hold that information. The State bodies in question may be contacted directly by e-mail by members of the Oireachtas, as set out in the attached document.