Public Procurement: Statements
Seanad Éireann — 2026-04-29
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Chris Andrews (SF), Labour Panel

I welcome this debate and I thank the Minister of State for being in attendance to discuss this important issue. This debate is timely given that the Department of public expenditure and reform, through its Office of Government Procurement, is in the process of developing its first national procurement strategy. Transparency, openness and a level playing field are of paramount importance when it comes to spending public money. Members of the public as taxpayers are entitled to feel that the State is utilising and investing their money in an accountable and efficient manner.
Unfortunately, there are too many examples in recent memory of the State getting procurement badly wrong. Small projects like the famous bike shelter, security huts and little walls have garnered big headlines in recent years and rightly so. The public are right to inquire. If the Government cannot get the small things right, what are the chances of the big projects going awry? We can of course point to the children's hospital coming in now at more than €1 billion over budget, which is just staggering and made worse by the fact that its completion has been delayed time after time. The children it was meant to serve will be well into adulthood before it opens its doors. I recently heard there are other issues with making sure all the rooms are ready and for fit for purpose.
This is from a Government that has tried to paint my party, Sinn Féin, as economically challenged. There is a certain irony when we hear that accusation being thrown at us. We did not crash the economy and we are not presiding over the worst housing crisis the State has known. We do not continue to give tax breaks to landlords, banks and insurance companies at the expense of the working people who are put to the pin of their collars trying to put fuel in their cars and heat in their homes.
The Government itself has reported that State expenditure and public procurement stands at between 10% and 12% of GDP. This makes the Government a significant player in the economy of this State. For too long, reform of public procurement has been ignored. I acknowledge the work of others in this space. My party colleague, an Teachta Mairéad Farrell, introduced a policy report, Towards a New Strategy for Progressive Procurement, in 2021. She followed this with her Transparency and Social Value in Public Procurement Bill 2024, which the Government last year amended and delayed for two years. Similarly, Senator Alice-Mary Higgins, who is on cue behind me, has done tremendous work in this area. Her Quality in Public Procurement (Contract Preparation and Award Criteria) Bill 2021 was passed by the Seanad but rejected by the Government earlier this year. While I welcome the Government's move to produce a national strategy on public procurement, I hope it has taken on board the content of both of these Bills and the debates that took place on them in these Houses.
I will also mention the North's public procurement policy which was first introduced by Senator Conor Murphy when he was finance minister in the Northern Assembly in 2022. That new policy introduced for the first time mandatory scoring of social value within public procurement contracts. This means that in the North, Executive procurement is used to meet policy objectives, for example, reducing poverty through the creation of jobs for people living in disadvantaged areas and delivering environmental benefits by requiring contracts to employ low- or zero-carbon policies. These are all measures that should be employed in this State. In addition, 23 councils, North and South, have passed ethical procurement policies. This means that procurement in these councils is guided by the UN guiding principles on business and human rights, OECD guidelines for multinational enterprises and the global Sullivan principles.
The State has many models that it can draw from in creating its own procurement strategy. At the heart of its considerations must be the integral role of social environmental and ethical considerations in procurement and the positive effects these can have on well-being and sustainability.

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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