€29.5bn procurement strategy puts carbon, SMEs and value for money at centre of State contracts
Ireland’s first national public procurement strategy sets 51 actions across five pillars, with major implications for construction tendering, project assessment and public works delivery
6 August 2026 | editor@breakingground.news
Ireland’s first National Public Procurement Strategy has set out a five-year programme to reform how the State awards and manages contracts, including major changes affecting construction companies, consultants, designers and building-material suppliers.
Procuring for our Future, the National Public Procurement Strategy 2026–2030, contains 15 objectives and 51 supporting actions. Each action has an identified performance measure, with delivery to be overseen through a dedicated implementation structure.
The strategy was launched by Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation Jack Chambers and Minister of State with responsibility for Public Procurement, Digitalisation and eGovernment Frank Feighan.
It comes as public procurement represents a substantial market for Irish businesses. Public bodies advertised 8,004 contracts with an estimated award value of €29.5 billion during 2025, according to figures published with the strategy.
The €29.5 billion figure represents the estimated value recorded by public bodies when contracts were awarded and does not necessarily reflect the amount ultimately spent.
A total of 1,948 public buyers published tenders during the year, while the median number of bids received for each tender was three. Professional services, fleet and plant, and minor building works and civil engineering were the three largest tendering categories.
SMEs secured 88% of contracts awarded in 2025. Of the 10,147 suppliers that responded to tenders, 8,826 were SMEs.
The strategy seeks to increase competition by making State procurement more accessible to SMEs, microenterprises, start-ups and social enterprises. This will include measures to promote consortium bidding, allowing smaller firms to combine their capabilities and resources when competing for larger contracts.
The Office of Government Procurement and the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission have been tasked with raising awareness of consortium bidding opportunities.
The strategy also commits to promoting proportionate standards in public works procurement. This is intended to address qualification conditions, such as turnover, insurance and previous experience requirements, which can prevent smaller contractors and consultants from competing.
The Construction Sector Capacity and Procurement Unit has been assigned responsibility for supporting this work through training. The strategy provides for practitioner training and Community of Practice events during 2026.
It also commits the Office of Government Procurement to analyse eTenders data to measure SME participation and identify sectors experiencing low levels of competition. Findings are due to be presented to the Public Procurement Advisory Council by the end of the second quarter of 2027.
Government departments and public bodies will be required to explain through their Corporate Procurement Plans how they intend to support SME participation. Those plans are expected to provide suppliers with greater visibility of forthcoming procurement activity.
For construction businesses, one of the most significant changes concerns the assessment of carbon associated with public capital projects.
The Office of Government Procurement is to develop a reporting tool using methodologies being prepared by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland. The system will assess the global warming potential of Exchequer-funded projects delivered through the National Development Plan.
A reporting portal for pilot participants is targeted for the fourth quarter of 2026. The measure points towards embodied and whole-life carbon data becoming a more regular consideration in decisions on publicly funded buildings and infrastructure.
The strategy also continues the rollout of Green Public Procurement requirements. An updated version of the State’s Green Public Procurement Criteria Search tool is due to replace the existing system by the end of the first quarter of 2027. The current tool recorded 24,341 users during 2025.
Social considerations are also expected to feature in a greater proportion of public contracts. The Government is targeting their inclusion in 10% of tenders by the end of 2030, supported by updated national guidance and monitoring through procurement notices.
For construction, social requirements could include considerations relating to employment, skills, apprenticeships, accessibility and community benefits. Progress towards the target is due to be evaluated in 2029.
The National Disability Authority and the Department of Public Expenditure are also expected to hold at least one annual information session from 2027 to help public buyers incorporate accessibility and Universal Design principles into procurement processes.
Public works will continue to be governed by the Capital Works Management Framework, which the strategy identifies as the principal policy instrument for compliant construction tendering and project delivery.
However, the wider National Public Procurement Policy Framework is to be comprehensively redesigned by the end of the second quarter of 2027. Public procurement circulars will also be audited to identify obsolete or overlapping requirements and consolidate the system.
The reforms could affect the guidance and administrative rules followed by public bodies and businesses when procuring and delivering construction projects.
Public procurement data will become more accessible under a separate transparency programme. The Office of Government Procurement is expected to pilot a data analytics platform by the end of the third quarter of 2026, followed by a publicly accessible website using eTenders information in the fourth quarter.
The strategy aims to capture approximately 80% of State procurement expenditure through expanded data-sharing arrangements with public bodies. This could give construction firms greater access to information about contract values, purchasing activity and successful tenderers.
Ireland also intends to join the European Commission’s Public Procurement Data Space by the second quarter of 2028, connecting national procurement information with the EU’s central data initiative.
Measures addressing procurement integrity include planned guidance and webinars on collusive tendering and bid-rigging. A review of the Tender Advisory Service, through which suppliers can raise concerns about tendering processes, is due to be published by the end of 2027.
The strategy identifies weaknesses in buyer capacity as another area requiring attention. Approximately 82% of eTenders users advertised only one or two tenders during 2025, indicating that much public procurement is undertaken by officials who use the system infrequently.
The response will include procurement e-learning, expanded training sessions, specialist masterclasses and a National Public Procurement Knowledge Hub. The Government also intends to define the skills and competence required by procurement practitioners based on the value, risk and complexity of the contracts they manage.
The reforms are being introduced as the European Union prepares to revise its public procurement rules. Ireland has committed to seeking a system that provides greater simplicity, flexibility and competition while retaining applicable environmental, social and legal standards.
Any resulting national legislation will be accompanied by updated guidance. Ireland’s Presidency of the Council of the European Union, running from July to December 2026, will give the State a role in progressing negotiations on the revised framework.
Implementation of the national strategy will be overseen by a group meeting quarterly and reporting through the Procurement Policy Working Group to the Public Procurement Advisory Council. An independent mid-term review is planned for 2028.
The Government said work had already begun, including supplier webinars, buyer and supplier journey-mapping exercises and preparations for a national supplier expo in 2027.
The first procurement webinar for SMEs attracted more than 800 participants. A supplier breakfast event is also scheduled to take place in Sligo on 8 September, while the planned national expo will build on a November 2025 event attended by almost 2,900 people.
For construction and built-environment companies, the strategy signals a gradual move towards more proportionate tender requirements, greater support for joint bidding, increased publication of procurement data and wider consideration of carbon and social outcomes.
Those objectives remain subject to expenditure controls. The strategy states that broader economic, environmental and social outcomes must be pursued within existing budget allocations and alongside value-for-money requirements.
*Further reources and developer/project owner support at Property District: https://propertydistrict.ie/?p=20790
