Albert Dolan (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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230. To ask the Taoiseach and Minister for Defence 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. [33637/25]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The Department of Defence is organised across six divisions, each of which is headed by an Assistant Secretary or Director. There are three bodies under the aegis of my Department; the Army Pensions Board, established under the Army Pensions Act 1927, the Ombudsman for the Defence Forces, established pursuant to the provisions of the Ombudsman (Defence Forces) Act 2004 and the External Oversight Body of the Defence Forces (EOB), which was placed on a Statutory basis on 1 December 2024.

Responsibility for procurement falls under the Assistant Secretary over the Strategic Change & Capability Development Division.

The Department’s Procurement and Acquisitions Branch manages overall procurement policy within the Defence Organisation, reflecting the specialised nature of the equipment profile and works on major projects in conjunction with various units within the Defence Forces. Procurement and Acquisitions Branch, which has a staffing complement of twenty-six, has a range of functions within the procurement area ranging from the direct management of procurement activities for defensive equipment and materials including ammunition, the contract management of major capital equipment programmes, the disposal of obsolete equipment and corporate governance issues.

Procurement and acquisitions Branch engages with the Office of Government Procurement and provides procurement advice to other Branches of the Defence Organisation.

In addition, procurement procedures are in place in the Defence Organisation to provide a joint civil and military forum for oversight and approval of expenditure and to ensure that expenditure is profiled and monitored on an ongoing basis. In this regard a High Level Planning and Procurement Group (HLPPG) comprising of senior civil and military management of the Department of Defence and the Defence Forces, and an associated Working Group meet on a monthly basis. The Group also develops and implements multi annual plans for the Defence Forces for equipment procurement and for infrastructural development based on agreed policy priorities.