Ms Anne Stewart:

I am the assistant secretary in the Office of Government Procurement. We are a division of the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform. I am joined by my colleagues Andrew Bogie, principal officer, and David O’Brien, principal officer.

I thank the Cathaoirleach and members of the committee for the invitation to assist them in their consideration of how the public procurement elements of the public sector mandate are being reflected in decisions being made and the work of the Office of Government Procurement. To do this, it may be helpful to set out the role and remit of the Office of Government Procurement.

The OGP acts as the strategic adviser to the Minister on all matters related to procurement. We have two primary roles: first, the development of national procurement policy which aligns to the EU procurement directives and encompasses new legislative Acts; and, second, as a central purchasing body that establishes central solutions for the procurement of general goods and services by contracting authorities. The OGP also performs a number of other functions, which include the management of the national eTenders platform, management of the capital works management framework, as well as developing a national digital strategy and the professionalisation of public buyers. We also directly support key clients through our key account management team and our helpdesk, which supports not only contracting authorities but also economic operators.

With regard to the central purchasing function, the OGP acts as a central purchasing body establishing central purchasing solutions for goods and services which can be availed of by contracting authorities. These solutions are developed based on the identified needs of public sector bodies and are developed with input and expertise from end users and appropriate Departments. The OGP includes GPP, green public procurement, in its solutions where permissible and practically possible. Currently, 47 of our solutions contain GPP, including solutions linked directly to the EPA's 11 priority areas. Key green procurement solutions to note include the re-manufactured laptops framework, recycled paper, managed print services and electric vehicles.

With regard to EU procurement law, in Ireland public procurement is governed by legislation at a European and national level. The OGP has taken into account EU priorities on public procurement which include the wider uptake of innovation; green and social procurement; increasing access to procurement markets; improving transparency, integrity and data; and boosting the digital transformation of procurement. This is evident in policy changes and circulars we have published, in the development of the eTenders platform to collect data and in the updates to central arrangements upon their renewal date.

A plan to update the EU directives is under way and we expect that process will be completed over the next two to three years whereby at that time the updated directives will be transposed into Irish law. With regard to the public procurement elements of the public sector climate action mandate and how these are reflected in the work of the OGP, the public sector has a vital role to play in leading Ireland’s transition to a sustainable and carbon-neutral economy and society. Public procurement is one of the primary ways in which public bodies can achieve this. Green public procurement is a process whereby public bodies can meet their needs for goods, services, works and utilities by choosing solutions that have a reduced impact on the environment throughout their life cycle as compared with alternative products and solutions.

To assist in the provision of green criteria that can be incorporated into public procurement, the EPA published updated green public procurement guidance for the public sector in 2021 and again in 2024. In 2022, the OGP led the development of an online GPP search tool that allows the user to rapidly find, select and download the Irish GPP criteria relevant to specific procurement projects. A website was specifically designed to facilitate use of green procurement in response to the public sector climate mandate, which was action 3.4.

The OGP engaged closely with the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications in the development of the Buying Greener: Green Public Procurement Strategy and Action Plan 2024-2027 to fulfil action 10.3.7 in the climate action plan. Buying Greener was published in April 2024, and a key action for the OGP is to replace Circular 20/2019. The new circular is expected to be published later this year and will be a key policy instrument for fulfilling procurement elements in the forthcoming climate action plan 2025.

I hope this opening statement gives the committee a high-level view of the OGP as an organisation but, more importantly, assurance of our commitment to shaping a transparent, socially inclusive, environmentally and economically sustainable future through the use of public procurement across the Civil Service.