Albert Dolan (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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604. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht 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 his 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 his Department will now consider putting in place such monitoring systems, in light of the administrative cost and service delays associated with failed procurement procedures. [40398/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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The information requested by the Deputy, in relation to procurement competitions undertaken by my Department since 2019 that did not result in a contract award due to the reasons listed, is provided in the table below.

Given the relatively small level of procurement undertaken directly by my Department, and the low number of procurement competitions over the time period in question which did not result in a contract award, no detailed analysis of procurement competitions has been undertaken, and such issues are assessed on a case by case basis.

With regard to achieving effective procurement outcomes, my Department is committed to achieving value for money for the acquisition of goods and services which are essential to support its work. It is Departmental policy that, wherever possible, OGP frameworks are utilised for the procurement of these goods and services.

In relation to oversight of procurement processes, my Department has a detailed procurement policy in place, which fully aligns with the guidelines produced by the Office of Government Procurement (OGP). A procurement officer is in place, and my Department also has a designated contact point within the OGP for queries and provision of advice on available framework agreements and other procurement processes, where required.