Albert Dolan (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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209. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport 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. [40401/25]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal East, Fianna Fail)
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In the period 22 May 2023 – July 2025, my Department has held 7 unsuccessful tender competitions above €50,000 ex-VAT on eTenders. Administrative costs for those unsuccessful competitions are not available. Figures for the number of unsuccessful competitions above €50,000 ex-VAT for the period 2019-21 May 2023 are not available given the changeover to the new eTenders platform in 2023.

It is part of my Department’s internal procurement policy that where NIL responses are received to a tender competition that the Department will engage via eTenders with the market to find out the reasons why suppliers did not respond. There is no obligation on the Department to conduct such engagement with suppliers nor for suppliers to reply to a market engagement.

My Department has conducted pre-market engagement (as explicitly permitted under the 2016 Procurement Regulations) with suppliers and expert bodies before the start of a procurement process, in particular where the requirement is bespoke. This is in support of good procurement practice as outlined in the OGP Guidelines on the Procurement of Goods and Services. Pre-market engagement has assisted my Department in understanding the market, in the development of clearer requirements in technical specifications, in improved understanding of potential costs, better understanding of timelines and it has encouraged competition. This engagement has yielded very positive results. It is a process my Department will be repeating in 2025.