Albert Dolan (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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198. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the number of purchase orders processed by his Department in 2023 that were not included in the published reports of purchase orders over €20,000; the number of purchase orders excluded due to their value falling below the €20,000 threshold, and the total combined value of those purchase orders; and the number of purchase orders excluded because they related to transactions other than for goods or services, for example, grants-in-aid or reimbursements, in line with reporting conventions. [37232/25]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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This Department complies with the requirement to publish all purchase orders exceeding €20,000, as required under the 2011 Public Service Reform Plan. These publications refer to transactions for goods and services only.

In compiling these reports, the following transactions are correctly excluded:

- Items under €20,000

- Items exceeding €20,000 that do not relate to goods and services. These items typically relate Ireland's mandatory international contributions to institutions such as the UN, Council of Europe, OECD, OSCE, the European Peace Facility and other. This category contains programme expenditure for Irish Aid, such as grants, humanitarian assistance, bilateral cooperation, payments to international funds for the benefit of developing countries and contributions to development agencies. In addition, this category contains programme expenditure in advancing Ireland’s foreign policy goals, such as the Emigrant Support Programme, International Fund for Ireland, EU Engagement, the Reconciliation fund and other measures.

For 2023, the number of purchase orders correctly excluded due to their falling below €20,000 was 5,550 (Value: €15.7m)

For 2023, the number of purchase orders, exceeding €20,000, correctly excluded due to their involving transactions other than goods or services is 868 (Value: €785.1m).