Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 28 April 2022
121. Deputy Richard Bruton asked the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if his Department measures the penetration of green procurement within total procurement; the estimated penetration levels achieved; and the adequacy of policies to achieve increased penetration. [21001/22]
View answerIn 2019, my Department published Circular 20/2019: Promoting the use of Environmental and Social Considerations in Public Procurement. This Circular requires departments to incorporate relevant green procurement measures into their reporting cycles.
The Circular further advises that an Annual Report template with an accompanying guidance note will be made available by the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications (DECC). Each Department is required to report annually on progress in relation to Green Public Procurement to DECC. To this end, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), published Green Public Procurement (GPP): Monitoring and Reporting by Government Departments in April 2022. The report identifies that Government departments reported a total spend of €53.765 million on contracts over €25,000, signed in 2020, that included green criteria representing an average of 17% of the total spend reported on contracts over €25,000 and 26% of the total number of contracts over €25,000.
Since 2020, there has been increased collaboration between my officials in the Office of Government Procurement (OGP), the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications (DECC) and the EPA to develop and implement policy to enhance uptake of GPP. In line with the Programme for Government, the OGP and its partner Central Purchasing Bodies (CPBs) are greening centralised purchasing arrangements. In 2021, the OGP and DECC jointly established an Environmental subgroup of the Strategic Procurement Advisory Group, to facilitate discussion across CPBs and relevant departments and agencies on approaches to incorporate environmental considerations into procurement. In 2021, the EPA updated its ‘Green Public Procurement - Guidance for the Public Sector’. This was accompanied by defined, quantifiable, verifiable, and measurable green criteria for 10 sectors. The OGP, DECC, and EPA have extensively promoted use of these criteria in procurement. The EPA also provided training on GPP to procurement officers and others in public bodies during 2020 and 2021. In 2022, the EPA will focus on training officials in government departments.
In December 2021, a Government Decision was taken for the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications to review ‘Green Tenders’ – Ireland’s National Action Plan on GPP. This review is underway.
Much has been achieved since 2020 to facilitate GPP, and I am confident that the range of national policies addressing GPP in Climate Action Plan 2019, the Programme for Government, Interim Climate Actions 2021, Climate Action Plan 2021, and the Waste Action Plan for a Circular Economy will drive the uptake of GPP.
