Public Procurement Contracts
Dail Éireann — 2026-04-16
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Grace Boland (FG), Dublin Fingal West

I very much welcome the references to frameworks, guidance and training. That is all very important. We repeatedly see at the public accounts committee systemic failures in procurement processes. I have worked in this space. I am a lawyer. I have advised in this space. Unless we have people who understand the business case and who put in place appropriate milestones, and unless we have appropriate legal protections in place to mitigate the risks and make sure that delivery is pegged to payment, we are setting ourselves up for failure. We see it time and time again. We have a SUSI grant project with €6.4 million paid that is at pre-project phase. The national train control centre will see a €40 million overrun and more. We have to have the confidence and capability, and the Department has to assess budget versus delivery. We need to make sure with the projects for which we are awarding contracts that we award them on the basis that they have the competence to deliver them on time and on budget. I very much hope the Department will request that all Departments and agencies will provide annual reports on budget versus outturn.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-04-16/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:49+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-04-16