Mairéad Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)
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388. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the cost of funding five staff positions for procurement specialists in the Office of the Ombudsman. [39204/25]

Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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The Ombudsman's role is to examine complaints from members of the public who believe that they have been unfairly treated by certain public service providers such as government departments, local authorities, the HSE, public hospitals, public funded third level education bodies and public and private nursing homes. The Office does not have a specific role in respect of public procurement. It is not within the remit of the Ombudsman to deal with disputes regarding the outcome of public procurement competitions. National Remedies Regulations provide a recourse option to tenderers at High Court level to challenge procurement processes, which they may consider were not compliant with public procurement rules.

The Ombudsman has no expertise in this area and a scoping exercise would be required to identify the level and mix of procurement specialists. As a result we are not in a position to provide the funding costs requested.