Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 25 November 2020
33. Deputy Mairéad Farrell asked the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications if his Department and any commercial or non-commercial State bodies and private entities subsidised by 50% or more of public funding under the aegis of his Department have implemented social clauses in their public procurement contracts in the past three years (details supplied); and if so, the nature of these social clauses. [39047/20]
Amharc ar fhreagraProcurement legislation allows contracting authorities to take social considerations, including environmental requirements, into account at the relevant stages of a procurement process where they are linked to the subject matter of the contract and respect the basic principles of equal treatment, transparency, proportionality and mutual recognition.
Social considerations are included in all public procurement contracts awarded by my Department as a result of statutory requirements in areas such as health and safety, environmental, equality and employment law.
In respect of contracts tendered directly by my Department, non-statutory social clauses have been incorporated into a number of public procurement processes as shown in the table below.
|
Contract |
Contract Awarded |
Nature of social clauses |
|
Emergency Call Answering Service |
February 2018 |
Inclusion of contractual clauses relating to the protection of the environment and reduction in energy consumption. |
|
Environmental Assessment Services |
October 2020 |
Inclusion of green procurement as award criteria. |
|
Advice on Environmental Assessment (Single Consent) |
May 2020 |
Inclusion of green procurement as award criteria. |
The information requested in relation to the bodies under the aegis of my Department is an operational matter for each body. The Department will request the relevant bodies to reply directly to the Deputy with the information requested in respect of their organisations.
