Dáil Éireann Debate, Monday - 11 September 2023
530. Deputy Rose Conway-Walsh asked the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform the proportion of public procurement contracts divided into smaller contracts in order to facilitate application of smaller providers; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38169/23]
View answerIn March, my Department published Circular 05/2023: Initiatives to assist SMEs in Public Procurement, which replaced Circular 10/2014. The circular highlights the positive measures that contracting authorities can take to promote SME participation in public sector procurement, including the separation of contracts into lots where reasonable and without compromising efficiency and value for money.
Circular 05/2023 also sets out the threshold at which contracting authorities are required to advertise all contracts for goods and services on the national electronic tendering service, eTenders, is now €50,000 (exclusive of VAT). Based on the data available to my Department through eTenders, please find in the table below details on the proportion tenders for public contracts published on eTenders where those contracts have been sub-divided into Lots. This data relates to all tenders published on eTenders, whether above or below national and EU thresholds:
Proportion of Public Procurement Tenders published on eTenders with Lots
|
Year |
Proportion based on total number of tenders published |
Proportion based on total estimated contract value of tenders published |
|
2022 |
8.67% |
30.82% |
|
2021 |
8.86% |
29.61% |
|
2020 |
8.20% |
40.12% |
|
2019 |
8.76% |
40.34% |
|
2018 |
8.53% |
20.06% |
|
Five Year Average |
8.62% |
30.47% |
Table 1. – Proportion of Tenders published with Lotting applied between 2018 and 2022 inclusive
It is important to note , there is no data available to my Department to determine precisely the reason for a contracting authority’s decision to sub-divide their contracts into Lots.
The use of lotting is but one measure within a suite of measures that can be taken by contracting authorities to assist SMEs access public procurement opportunities. As part of their pre procurement planning, contracting authorities consider strategies to achieve greater value for money in line with the overall strategic objectives of their organisations. Therefore, each contracting authority is best placed to determine how it can incorporate the measures outlined in Circular 05/2023 into their Corporate Procurement Plans and individual procurements within the remits of EU Procurement Law.
My Department will continue to proactively engage with business to enhance the significant measures and strategies already in place to support SME access to public procurement opportunities building on the progress to date.
