Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 16 May 2013
146. Deputy Thomas Pringle asked the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if he will provide a copy of the impact assessment on local jobs in relation to the public procurement (frameworks agreements) circular 06/12 (details supplied). [23628/13]
View answerI understand that the issue of the impact of Circular 6/12: Public Procurement (Framework Agreements) for the procurement of goods and services on local jobs was raised by the Deputy with my colleague Minister of State Brian Hayes TD on 23 January 2013 (PQ 3220/13 refers). You may recall that Minister Hayes did not indicate that an impact assessment had been carried out but noted that the impact on local jobs had been carefully considered and that very substantial dialogue with representatives of the small and medium enterprise (SME) sector had taken place before the introduction of the circular.
The key purpose of Circular 6/12 is to enable the State to do more with less by aggregating procurement to secure better value for money. It is also worth noting that such aggregation arrangements can be implemented in a manner that achieves value for money with a minimal negative impact, or indeed a positive impact, on SMEs. When Circular 06/12 was being drafted the decision was made to include the existing national contracts that applied across the majority of the public sector as commonly purchased goods and services. While a number of the categories of goods and services mandated under the Circular are suited to single supplier national arrangements, these need not be accepted as the norm. The greater use, where appropriate, of multi-supplier frameworks can address local supplier issues while also ensuring on-going cost competitiveness of the framework itself. Such multi-supplier frameworks may also offer SMEs the opportunity to participate in national level contracts, thereby offering valuable reference work when competing for public procurement contracts in other jurisdictions.
The National Procurement Service (NPS) has developed tender documentation to encourage the participation of SMEs. For example, the contract for office supplies was divided into three individual lots for Stationery, ICT Consumables and Paper. SMEs that believed the scope of the competitions were beyond their technical or business capacities were encouraged to explore the possibilities of forming relationships with other SMEs or with larger enterprises. Through such relationships they could participate and contribute to the successful implementation of any contracts that resulted from these competitions and therefore increase their social and economic benefits.
Larger enterprises were also encouraged to consider the practical ways that SMEs could be included in their proposals to maximise the social and economic benefits of the contracts that result from these tenders. For example, the indigenous company, which won the Stationery contract, with an estimated value of €10m per annum, is sourcing up to 60% of their products using 136 local agents and manufacturers.
In order to encourage greater SME participation the NPS, over the past three years, has conducted a targeted programme of education for suppliers who wish to learn more about doing business with the Irish Public Service. This programme consists of seminars, workshops and large scale 'meet the buyer' events hosted nationwide. To date the NPS has facilitated workshops and presented at seminars to over 4,500 SMEs nationwide. Parallel with these events the NPS also works closely with business representative bodies such as ISME and IBEC to provide briefings for their members.
Whilst the government want better value for money for our substantial procurement spend we also want Irish SMEs, where necessary, to form alliances and networks to ensure they can tender on a competitive basis for this work.
