Public Procurement Contracts

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 27 June 2023

Tuesday, 27 June 2023

Ceisteanna (44)

Rose Conway-Walsh

Ceist:

44. Deputy Rose Conway-Walsh asked the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform to outline the progress made on reforming public procurement in order to improve environmental, economic and social impacts; making particular reference to the objective of including green criteria in all procurements using public funds, to be completed within three years, as committed to in the programme for Government; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30981/23]

Freagraí ó Béal (7 píosaí cainte)

Deputy Rose Conway-Walsh

Will the Minister outline the progress made on reforming public procurement to improve the environmental, economic and social impacts, making particular reference to the objective of including the green criteria we talked about earlier in all procurement using public funds, which was to be completed within three years as committed in the programme for Government? As I have outlined, procurement is a powerful tool for implementing reform. This was recognised by the Government in the inclusion of green criteria in all procurement using public funds within the 36 months and I want to see where that is at.

Deputy Ossian Smyth

I thank the Deputy. My Department has made significant progress on incorporating environmental, economic and social considerations into public procurement which must be undertaken in accordance with the EU directives. In 2018, the OGP within my Department published an information note entitled Incorporating Social Considerations into Public Procurement. The OGP subsequently issued Circular 20/2019: Promoting the use of Environmental and Social Considerations in Public Procurement. This instructed Departments to consider including green public procurement, GPP, criteria in public procurement processes. The OGP launched the online GPP criteria search tool in 2022 to further assist public buyers in selecting appropriate national green procurement criteria that have been developed by the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA. An OGP web page on sustainable public procurement provides additional information, including a frequently updated sustainable public procurement news section.

The interdepartmental strategic procurement advisory group chaired by the OGP and its environmental subgroup, co-chaired with the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications, promote strategic procurement encompassing the circular economy, climate, energy and wider social challenges. The small and medium enterprise, SME, advisory group I chair provides a forum for business representative bodies to discuss procurement issues including consultation on the recent Circular 05/2023: Initiatives to assist SMEs in Public Procurement. This circular provides measures promoting SME participation in public procurement competitions. In practical terms, the OGP and its partner central purchasing bodies across the health, education, defence and local government sectors are incorporating green and social considerations into their framework agreements. The OGP has implemented GPP criteria in 47 of its solutions to date.

The Government's Climate Action Plan 2021 introduced a requirement to procure electric vehicles in the public sector climate action mandate, which the OGP supported through a central purchasing arrangement. Climate Action Plan 2023 expands public sector GPP commitments to specific categories such as paper, vehicles, heating, catering and construction, and implementation in line with the EPA's Green Public Procurement Guidance for the Public Sector published in 2021.

Deputy Rose Conway-Walsh

I thank the Minister of State for all that. He rightly said a circular was published in 2019 promoting the use of environmental and social considerations in public procurement. Then the programme for Government set a specific deadline of this week for the inclusion of the green criteria in all procurement using public funds and nothing like that level of ambition seems to have been achieved. Is there a revised deadline on that and when will we see the inclusion of green criteria in all procurement using public funds?

In my previous role as spokesperson on further and higher education I repeatedly called for the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform to use social clauses for procurement to incentivise companies to take on apprentices. I was initially pleased to see an information note was prepared for public bodies. However, there were again no targets set. There was an information note, but there was no requirement to use procurement to incentivise apprenticeships in that sense and we have not achieved what we might have had we done it differently.

Deputy Ossian Smyth

Specifically, the programme for Government includes a target of updating all procurement frameworks for green procurement within the first three years of Government, so in other words within this week. The Deputy is absolutely right. I believe we are on target to meet that. Throughout that time I have convened a committee that covers not just our central procurement arrangements that come from the OGP, but also those that come from the Department of Defence, the Department of Education, the Department with responsibility for local government and the HSE.

All the procurement frameworks have been reviewed. Not all of them are capable of being updated for green procurement. For example, it is difficult to see how a procurement framework that relates to legal services could be updated for green procurement. However, in general if we are not there we are at about 98%. In the coming month I will publish a new green procurement strategy document that will provide guidelines and specific information that is easy to digest and accessible for all those procurement bodies so they know how to implement green procurement. That will add to the EPA's guidance that came out last year.

Deputy Rose Conway-Walsh

What concerns me is we seem to present lots of guidelines, and rightly so, but if we do not break those down into actual obligations for what the different bodies need to do then we find the outcomes are not what we might have hoped they would be. Thus, we need to look at some other mechanisms and targets to ensure we are getting the outcomes we need.

Deputy Ossian Smyth

I agree it is unfortunate if we produce guidelines that do not produce the correct outcomes. However, the OGP's function and powers are not to direct Departments in how to do things. It provides the information and the guidance, but the decision that something must be done in a Department is one taken by Government. If the Government wants to direct that every Department must buy electric vehicles from now on that decision must come from Cabinet, and that particular decision has done. Many of those decisions are appearing in the climate action plan. They are all enumerated and included are things that must be done as they are commands to public sector bodies. The OGP, unfortunately, is not a police force. It is not a policy-making body in that it cannot order Departments. It can provide the direction and the guidance and that is why all these guidance things come out. Another thing it can do is provide data and show to what extent we are greening our procurement. Then I guess it is the function of the Comptroller and Auditor General to ensure public sector bodies are complying with the guidance that has been supplied by the OGP.

An Leas-Cheann Comhairle

We are almost at an end. There are three minutes left. Deputy Conway-Walsh is on again but she will not have her full time.