Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 2 November 2021
121. Deputy Mary Lou McDonald asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the number of existing contracts of an indefinite period entered into by his Department prior to the enactment of the EU Procurement Directive. [53227/21]
Amharc ar fhreagraMy Department has a dedicated Procurement Co-Ordination Unit, with responsibility at Principal Officer level. The Unit assists internal business units and our Offices on a range of procurement matters, as required, so as to ensure that there is an appropriate focus on procurement best practice. The Department is also guided by various national and international (EU) procurement rules and guidelines.
The Department, for the vast majority of its procurements, will try to avail of various centralised procurement frameworks put in place by the Office of Government Procurement (OGP) as well as utilising the e-Tenders website and advertising in the EU Journal, where applicable.
With regard to the specific question asked by the Deputy, my Department uses three legacy proprietary ICT software systems where system support or software licensing is not available through third party suppliers, and there is an ongoing need for support or licensing from the system suppliers. The suppliers in question are Advance Systems, pTools and Oracle EMEA.
The Department also currently has a contract with one supplier, Virgin Media, for legacy ICT network connectivity to a small number of regional sites where historically there have not been other connectivity options. My Department regularly reviews such arrangements to identify alternative procurement options.
