Albert Dolan (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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684. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if his Department has a designated head of procurement; if each agency or public body under his Department’s remit also has a designated head of procurement; and if so, to list those entities, along with the name or grade of the person holding that role. [33633/25]

Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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My Department does not have a designated Head of Procurement position. However, my Department does have a Procurement Officer, which is at the grade of Assistant Principal Officer.

The Procurement Officer reports to the Head of Finance and Central Procurement Development Division.

The Procurement Officer supports Line Divisions and reports to senior management, as appropriate. The Procurement Officer also liaises with the Office of Government Procurement in terms of ensuring best practice, and in terms of learning about, and informing, emerging developments in the area.

As regards the 13 State Bodies under the aegis of my Department, the information requested is an operational matter for the State Bodies themselves. I have referred the Deputy’s question to the Agencies and have requested that a response should issue as soon as possible.

Albert Dolan (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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685. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of staff within his Department and its agencies who hold a formal procurement qualification or certification (for example, CIPS, NFQ Level 6 or higher in procurement, EU public procurement training), broken down by organisation, in tabular form. [33651/25]

Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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The HR Learning and Development Division of my Department provides training and resources to staff on good practice in procurement and compliance with relevant guidelines and legislation. Such training resources are provided in the form of training courses and lunch and learn webinars.

My HR Learning and Development Division also supports staff to pursue academic qualifications in procurement through the Funding of Academic Fees scheme. Since 2020 to date, five members of staff in my Department have completed studies in procurement at NFQ Level 6 (or higher). The table below provides details of course names and course providers.

Albert Dolan (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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686. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if his Department and each agency or public body under its remit uses a formal contract management system or procurement tracking platform; to list the systems in use; and if they are centrally monitored or independently operated. [33669/25]

Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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My Department utilises a number of tools to monitor contract management and procurement.

The eTenders platform is used by my Department to advertise and run formal procurement competitions. The eTenders platform is maintained by European Dynamics, who were awarded the contract to provide this service by the Office of Government Procurement.

My Department has monitoring capability in respect of all stages of tendering competitions that it advertises on the platform. All notices relating to above-threshold procurements (currently set at €143,000 ex-vat) are also advertised on Tenders Electronic Daily, which is the online version of the 'Supplement to the Official Journal' of the EU. This site is managed by the Publications Office of the European Union.

My Department records and publishes the details of all contracts awarded with a value of €5,000 (ex-vat) or greater. These are published on a quarterly basis on the Department’s website, linked below.

gov - Contracts Awarded (www.gov.ie/en/collection/02cb8-contracts-awarded-2020/)

The details of my Department's contracts are recorded on a financial management system (FMS) operated by SAP, a German multinational software company. My Department monitors and maintains a register of contracts using information derived from the SAP FMS.

As regards the 13 State Bodies under the aegis of my Department, the information requested is an operational matter for the State Bodies themselves. I have referred the Deputy’s question to the Agencies and have requested that a response should issue as soon as possible.