Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 28 April 2026
476. Deputy Cathal Crowe asked the Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation the measures he is taking to improve public procurement processes; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30888/26]
View answerThe Programme for Government includes a commitment to review the public procurement process to make it more transparent and encourage greater participation from SMEs. Working towards this aim, and to set out the strategic direction of public procurement for the next five years, my Department is developing a first national public procurement strategy.
The strategy has been subject to an extensive consultation process, which has been critical to understanding the primary challenges and opportunities for both public bodies and suppliers. My Department undertook the following as part of the consultation for this strategy:
A public consultation to ensure that all those with an interest in the future direction of public procurement had an opportunity to inform the new strategy.
Regional workshops in Dublin, Cork and Athlone, which included public buyers and policy makers from across the public sector, representation from across the broad spectrum of Irish business, representatives from civil society and members of the public.
A dedicated webinar for suppliers so they could feed into the development of the strategy.
Bilateral meetings with government departments and key stakeholders to agree desired outcomes and actions for inclusion in the strategy.
Direct engagement with SME and social enterprise representative bodies during the application of the SME Test.
The new National Public Procurement Strategy is currently being finalised. I expect to bring the strategy to Government in the coming weeks. The strategy will include objectives and cross-departmental actions to support the delivery of strategic, innovative, sustainable and transparent public procurement that promotes competition and value for money.
Critical to the successful implementation of this Strategy is supporting the public sector to deliver on this Strategy.
My Department has also developed ‘The Roadmap for the Digital development of public procurement’.
The Roadmap for the Digital development of public procurement was launched in November 2025. This was based on stakeholder input from workshops, bi-laterals and surveys conducted by OECD on behalf of OGP.
The vision of the road map is to have user focussed digital solutions that enable users to seamlessly navigate the complexities of the end-to-end procurement process.
The key elements to support achieving this vision are user-centricity, supporting the full procurement process digitally, and collaboration while aligning with other government strategies such as better public services, harnessing digital as well as the upcoming public procurement strategy.
The structures to deliver have been established already. One of those structures is a contracting authority Design panel which is made up of almost 80 buyers from across all sectors and knowledge levels who engage in both journey mapping and co-design activities.
In addition, a significant number of changes to the eTenders platform are underway. These are based on user feedback and are focussed on removing pain points and admin burden as well as supporting increased compliance.
