Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 2 March 2017
147. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the total amount of goods and services bought by the State from 2008 to date in 2017, by year; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10904/17]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs the Deputy is aware, my Department is responsible for policy on allocating public funds across each area of Government spending and ensuring that expenditure is managed in line with these allocations by the Government Departments and State Bodies. Within the overall allocations set by my Department, individual Ministers and their Departments allocate funds across various projects and programmes and monitor performance in line with their Department's priorities. My Department does not have the information requested by the Deputy as the expenditure data is, and will continue to be, held by the individual Government Departments and State Bodies that purchase goods, services and works.
However, based on a comprehensive data gathering and analysis conducted in the preparation of the Capacity and Capability Review of Central Procurement Function by Accenture in 2012 for my Department, the Office of Government Procurement (OGP) estimates that the State's annual procurement expenditure on goods and services (excluding works) totals approximately €8.5 billion. The procurement addressable spend under the remit of the OGP and its sector partners (Health, Education, Local Government and Defence) is estimated to be in the order of €6 billion when expenditure relating to areas such as the General Medical Services Scheme, grants to Community and Voluntary bodies, interagency payments and rent on property are excluded.
Since late 2013 the Office of Government Procurement (OGP) has been engaged in a substantial project to gather source data on procurement expenditure from Government Departments and State Bodies and create a central data repository that will support its sourcing and policy activities. The OGP published its first report Public Service Spend and Tendering Analysis Report for 2013 - in March 2015 with the second report, Public Service Spend and Tendering Analysis Report for 2014 published in September 2016. The Public Service Spend and Tendering Analysis Report for 2014 analysed almost two-thirds of addressable expenditure (€3.9 billion) across the 16 procurement spend categories. These reports are available on the OGP website www.procurement.ie.
