Minister of State with responsibility for public procurement, Mr. Simon Harris, T. D., today launched a public consultation on the implementation of new EU public procurement rules for the public sector.
Most of the provisions of the Directives are mandatory for Ireland to transpose into national law but there are some areas where the Directives permit policy choices and these are the focus of this consultation.
The consultation document therefore highlights the key policy choices for Ireland in transposing the new public procurement rules into Irish law and seeks views from public sector users, private sector tenderers, relevant representative bodies and other interested parties on key aspects of the new Directives.
The consultation document is now available on www.procurement.ie and responses to the set of specific questions posed in the document can be submitted by email to transposition@ogp.gov.ie The submissions received will be published on www.procurement.ie.
Minister of State Harris commented “in view of the important role that public procurement plays in the reform agenda and the importance of ensuring efficient public procurement practices I have decided to launch a public consultation on key aspects of the new Directives”. This process is intended to help inform the transposition process and shape the public procurement regime in the years ahead.
He went on to say that “I want to retain the maximum amount of flexibility afforded in the new regime to drive value for money outcomes from the significant spends on public procurement for the benefit of the whole economy”.
This consultation process will run from 31 October to 12 December, 2014.
Ends
31 October 2014
Notes for Editor
Ireland is required to transpose a suite of three new procurement Directives (Public Procurement, Utilities and Concessions) into national law by 17 April 2016. In Ireland, this is by means of a Statutory Instrument. The new Directives are:
- Public Procurement: Directive 2014/24/EU on public procurement, which will repeal Directive 2004/18/EC
- Utilities: Directive 2014/25/EU on procurement by entities operating in the water, energy, transport and postal services sectors, which will repeal Directive 2004/17/EC and
- Concessions: Directive 2014/23/EU on the award of Concession Contracts, which does not directly replace any previous Directive.
The new public procurement Directives are a development and an extension of the existing procurement regime. They also break new ground on aspects of procurement processes and procedures.
The new Directives contains a mixture of updated features which build upon aspects of the existing regime and newly-introduced elements reflecting the 2014 procurement environment
In general terms the new Directives feature:
- A less rigid approach to procedural matters while promoting the full use of electronic procurement.
- The scope for more strategic use of public procurement in support of environmental and social policy objectives;
- Better access to the lucrative public procurement market by SMEs and start-ups
- Deadlines for public tender submissions reduced by an average of 30%
- A reduction in documentation requirements
Ireland has already introduced reforms (Circular 10/14: Initiatives to assist SMEs in Public Procurement of April 2014) to the operation of the public procurement regime which anticipate many of the key changes in the new Directives.