Albert Dolan (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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36. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if he will consider establishing a unified and modern framework to close the transparency loop in public procurement, linking tenders, contract awards, purchase orders and payments in a single, machine-readable, publicly accessible system, in order that the full cycle from tender to payment to performance can be viewed by citizens; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [59829/25]

Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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As the Deputy is aware, there are a number of legislative and policy initiatives in train in my Department to address the issues which can give rise to data gaps, and to provide for transparency in public procurement.

Transparency is a fundamental principle of both EU and national procurement law and plays a vital role in building and maintaining public trust. It governs each stage of the procurement lifecycle from tender publication to contract award. In Ireland procurement notices published on eTenders serve as the primary and only centralised source of public procurement data. In recent years, Ireland implemented new EU Public Procurement eForms regulation. eForms are digital standard forms used by public sector buyers to publish notices on Tenders Electronic Daily (TED). The eForms regulation are aimed at improving the quality and relevance of the procurement information captured via the electronic notices (eForms) that contract authorities must complete and publish to comply with public procurement regulations.

The potential benefits that could arise from having greater connections between data from the tendering (pre-award) and the expenditure (post-award) stages of public procurement transactions are recognised, and my Department is continuously seeking to identify opportunities to make better use of data across all aspects of expenditure notwithstanding the operational and data governance and sharing challenges that exist in that regard. The Deputy should note that the department already makes publicly available the "where your money goes" portal which provides validated data in relation to public expenditure.