Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail)
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690. To ask the Minister for Finance whether his Department or any agency operating under the aegis of his department have used reserved contracts or social clauses in their public procurement tenders in the past five years and if so to outline the nature of the reserved contract or social clause; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42853/25]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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Reserved contracts allow for a public body to reserve a contract, or elements of it, to certain types of suppliers and these are set out in Regulation 20 and 77 of the European Union (Award of Public Authority Contracts) Regulations 2016. Typically, these are not for profit organisations or those of a social enterprise nature.

I can inform the Deputy that my Department has not used reserved contracts. Generally, the services procured by my Department are specialised and technical in nature and because of this are not suitable for reserved contracts.

My Department avails of framework agreements as provided for by the Office of Government Procurement (OGP) in so far as possible. The OGP incorporate social considerations such as sustainable and green criteria in their frameworks.

The bodies under the aegis of my Department have provided the below information.

Central Bank of Ireland

The Central Bank’s Corporate Procurement Policy contains a commitment to the principles of sustainable public procurement. Central Bank procedures prompt staff to consider, for all contracts, whether the use of green criteria would be appropriate for the contract. Green criteria are included in the final tender documents where appropriate, including in particular in relation to the ten priority sectors identified by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), where the Central Bank is procuring within those sectors. Procedures also prompt consideration of whether reserved contracts or the use of other social factors would be appropriate. In professional services contracts, the Central Bank also gather information from suppliers as to the sustainability factors they would be able to apply in delivering the services, so as to better inform our requirements in future.

The contracts listed in the table below relate to social clauses pertaining to sustainable or green considerations, and are the contracts that the Bank is aware of that definitely contain these clauses:

National Asset Management Agency (NAMA)

NAMA does not use reserved contracts. It fully supports the Government’s Environmental and Social Consideration Initiative and has adopted such practices by way of Board approved policies and procedures. NAMA incorporates appropriate social and environmental criteria in its procurement practices, as they relate to the performance of the services, such as the prevention or minimisation of waste; the use of recycled products and recycling facilities; energy conservation in buildings and in the use of equipment; the minimising of storage requirements and the use of paperless office solutions. NAMA discloses relevant information in its Annual Report each year.

National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA)

The NTMA has not used reserved contracts in public procurement tenders in the past five years. The use of social clauses is set out in the table below.

It should be noted that this response excludes sustainable/green procurement based on the NTMA’s understanding of sustainable/green procurement being distinct from social clauses, given that definitions, objectives and obligations for the latter have been separately addressed by OGP and EPA publications.

The NTMA provides certain business and support services and systems to Home Building Finance Ireland and Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland, both of which are bodies under the aegis of my Department. Procurement services are one such service provided to these bodies.

Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General

The Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General has not used reserved contracts in public procurement tenders in the past five years. All of the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General’s public procurement tenders since 2023 have considered, as part of the tender evaluation criteria, how each bid incorporates environmentally sustainable and/or social considerations into the delivery of the service.

Office of the Revenue Commissioners

Revenue have not used reserved contracts in their public procurement competitions in the past five years. They have included social clauses in the form of green public procurement criteria in the following tender competitions.