Albert Dolan (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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545. To ask the Minister for Health further to Parliamentary Question Nos. 329 and 331 of 24 June 2025, to the Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, which confirmed that responsibility for analysing collapsed or re-run procurement competitions rests with individual contracting authorities, if her Department has estimated or recorded the number of procurement competitions since 2019 that did not result in a contract award due to insufficient submissions, legal challenges, disqualification of bidders, or internal cancellation, recorded or estimated the administrative or financial cost associated with collapsed or re-run procurement competitions during the same period and undertaken any analysis on the underlying reasons for failed competitions and the extent to which outcomes might be improved through better planning, clearer specifications, earlier market engagement, or other procurement reforms; and if not, if her Department will now consider putting in place such monitoring systems, in light of the administrative cost and service delays associated with failed procurement procedures. [40394/25]

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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My Department operates a devolved procurement function whereby each business unit is responsible for the procurement of their own goods, services and any related contracts. Procurement is carried out in accordance with public procurement policy and national and European Union law. The aim of these rules is to promote an open, competitive, and non-discriminatory public procurement regime which ultimately delivers the best value for money.

Detailed records are not kept of procurement competitions that did not result in a contract award.

The new eTenders site, which came into effect in 2023, keeps a log of competitions and their award status. Since this new version came into effect there have been two competitions in my Department that have not resulted in a contract award. One of these was due to insufficient submissions.