Albert Dolan (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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928. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if there are any technical, legal, operational, or policy constraints preventing his Department, when publishing quarterly reports of payments or purchase orders over €20,000, from including additional columns that link each payment to its underlying procurement process specifically tender/contract title; name and address of the awarded contractor/supplier; contract award date; contract duration; expected contract value (excl. VAT); maximum contract value (excl. VAT); the unique identifier from the relevant contract award notice; and where such constraints exist, to provide details explaining his Department’s current process for reconciling each reported payment with the corresponding published contract award notice on eTenders. [55065/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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My Department complies with obligations in place in relation to the publication of payments for goods and service over €20,000. Quarterly reports on such payments are published online in pdf format. The latest report, Q2 of 2025, is available at the following link, and the Q3 report will be published in October 2025 - www.gov.ie/en/department-of-rural-and-community-development-and-the-gaeltacht/collections/drcd-payments-in-excess-of-20000/.

The structure of these reports is in line with relevant guidance contained in the FOI model publication scheme published by the Department of Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation (foi.gov.ie/guidance/model-publication-scheme/). I am informed that there are no technical constraints which would prevent the inclusion of the referenced material should any future guidance require it.

The obligations in relation to publication of payments over €20,000 are separate from those which govern public procurement and the award of tenders as set out by the Office of Government Procurement and European and national legislation around same. As part of my Department’s Procurement Policy, and in line with guidance from the Office of Government Procurement, my Department maintains a Contracts Register to monitor and report on all contracts procured with a value over €25,000 excluding VAT. This register is updated quarterly and is provided to the Comptroller and Auditor General as part of the annual audit of the Department’s appropriation account.