Albert Dolan (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

188. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government 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. [40386/25]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal East, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

My Department is responsible for ensuring that its procurements are in line with EU and National law, public procurement rules and guidelines. This is assisted by a significant body of guidance documentation from the Office of Government Procurement, including the Public Procurement Guidelines for Goods and Services. These materials outline the various stages of the procurement process from specification, through to selection and award stages. They provide comprehensive guidance on ensuring the specifications fully and accurately capture the requirements; and identify the risks of poor specification and the challenges that this can cause Contracting Authorities.

My Department operates a devolved procurement system in which each business area is responsible for managing its own procurements including maintaining full records including lessons learnt. While a central record of failed or cancelled procurements is not maintained, my Department has a Procurement Advisory Team, which provides best practice advice on procurement processes and documentation. This additional guidance reduces the potential for procurement failure.