Public Procurement: Statements Seanad Éireann — 2026-04-29 ============================================================ Frankie Feighan (FG), Sligo-Leitrim I thank the Cathaoirleach and Senators for the opportunity to attend and to discuss developments in the area of public procurement. The Department of Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation operates at the centre of government to drive the delivery of improved public services, higher living standards, and sustainable infrastructure for the people of Ireland. As Minister of State responsible for public procurement, digitalisation and eGovernment, I work closely with the Minister, Deputy Chambers, towards these aims. Our Department’s remit spans three broad and interconnected areas, namely, the governance and oversight of public expenditure, building capability and capacity across the civil and wider public service, and the effective delivery of key Government policies. These strategic priorities are set out in the Department’s statement of strategy for the period 2025 to 2028. Central to this strategy is the need to deliver effectively by leveraging our responsibilities across public expenditure, infrastructure, reform and digitalisation in order to respond to the evolving needs of society. The importance of public procurement to achieving these objectives is reflected in two key supporting actions. First, we are shaping a future for public procurement that embraces reform and is transparent and socially, environmentally and economically sustainable, and accessible by SMEs, through the national public procurement strategy. Second, we are focused on leveraging the benefits of the State’s expenditure by delivering procurement solutions that provide value for money, meet the needs of the public service and benefit society. As Minister of State with special responsibility for public procurement, I have tasked my officials with advancing this important work. I am pleased to be here today to provide an update on progress to date and to outline our priorities and planned actions for the period ahead. Indeed, I am always pleased to come back here to this august assembly as I was a Member here from 2002 to 2007 and from 2016 to 2020 and have very happy memories. My Department is developing Ireland’s first national public procurement strategy, which will set out the strategic direction of public procurement in Ireland for the next five years. Programme for Government 2025: Securing Ireland's Future includes a commitment to review the public procurement process to make it more transparent and work to ensure greater participation from SMEs. This strategy progresses this commitment. Drawing on the feedback received as part of the review, and taking account of wider policy developments at national and EU levels, the strategy expands its focus beyond transparency and SME participation to provide an holistic blueprint for the future direction of public procurement over the next five years. Reflecting the insights gathered through extensive consultation and considering wider programme for Government commitments, three critical outcomes for the strategy have been identified. First, the strategy will embed value for money as the linchpin underpinning every procurement but reframe it to include looking beyond the lowest price to take into account Ireland's strategic interests and wider societal economic and environmental outcomes and impacts. Second, it will facilitate a shift in mindset across the public sector to view procurement as a key policy and expenditure management tool. Third, it will support simplification by making doing business with Government easier for SMEs, start-up innovators, microenterprises and social enterprises as well as larger companies. Delivery of this simplification agenda is already under way. Last year, my Department published Public Procurement in Ireland: A Roadmap for Digital Development 2025-2031, which sets out a vision for user-focused digital solutions that enable users to seamlessly navigate the complexities of end-to-end procurement processes. Implementation of this vision is now progressing in practice, and my Department is focusing on the needs and experience of public buyers and suppliers, enabling greater simplification and harnessing digital and emerging technologies. For example, design groups have been established for both contracting authorities and suppliers to ensure user-centric co-design for all tactical projects. My Department is undertaking journey mapping with suppliers to identify pinch points and explore opportunities for simplification. One of the key themes permeating the strategy will be transparency, and I recognise that public procurement can play a critical role in maintaining and building public trust. We will work to strengthen confidence in the procurement system through the provision of better data and increased visibility of how and what the State procures. The Department has recently launched a new initiative to resume the collection of procurement spend data from across the public service. This project marks a new step towards building a richer national dataset that supports advanced analytics and enables meaningful comparison between estimated contract values and actual spend. This initiative will provide deeper visibility into procurement performance, supplier behaviour and value for money across the public sector. In addition, we are developing dedicated data analytics web pages to further drive transparency. These portals will make eTenders publication and contract information far more accessible and intuitive than before. By turning raw data into clearer visual insights, we will ensure greater accessibility and accountability in public procurement. As I stated earlier, my Department is also responsible for leveraging the benefits of the State's expenditure through the establishment of central procurement solutions. The Office of Government Procurement, which operates as part of my Department, and its sector sourcing partners in education, health, defence and local government have established a range of centralised procurement arrangements for use by public bodies. Government policy is that, where possible, public bodies should use central procurement arrangements. By aggregating the State's buying power, these arrangements deliver greater value for money by generating administrative savings, reducing duplication of effort and improving process efficiencies. Central procurement solutions also support public bodies in meeting their obligations to consider more strategic outcomes, including green, social and SME-friendly considerations. The Office of Government Procurement is responsible for sourcing common products and services for the public service, from pens and paper to laptops and professional services. We have established 83 central procurement arrangements, with over half of these allowing public sector bodies to award contracts without the need for further competition, which improves the overall administrative efficiency for public sector bodies and framework suppliers. In 2025, €2 billion flowed through central procurement arrangements established by the OGP. These developments provide the context for the ambition I want to conclude with today. Our ambition is to build a more strategic, innovative, sustainable and transparent system of public procurement that supports SMEs and delivers better public services and the best value for money for the taxpayer. The programme of work I have outlined demonstrates that this ambition is realistic, measurable and already being advanced in practice, with firm foundations now in place for continued progress. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-04-29/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:52+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-04-29