New rules for tenders in Ireland:
In October 2019, the Irish Government announced new requirements that suppliers to the Public Sector will have to meet. These are ‘Social Considerations’ and ‘Green Procurement’. Until recently, Ireland was behind other countries when it came to including these types of criteria in tenders. But this has now changed.
Green Procurement
To help meet the targets in Ireland’s Climate Action Plan, public buyers will now have to try to include green criteria in their Requests For Tenders. To make sure this happens, they must now include green procurement into their plans and reports.
Suppliers will need to be able to show how they protect the environment and combat climate change. At the very least you will probably need to have Environmental Management and Sustainability policies – and processes to help manage them. You also should expect to see green criteria included in contracts. You will also have to report on green KPIs.
Social Criteria
Procurement policy has focused on value for money and market access to opportunities. However, public bodies can also deliver wider social aims through their procurement processes. This will now be done by including social considerations like these:
- employment and training for disadvantaged groups;
- disability access;
- promoting social inclusion and social enterprises; and,
- protecting the environment and fighting climate change.
Here too, you can also expect to see social criteria included in contracts and KPIs.
The EU Procurement Directives and Irish law already allow for the use of social criteria. However, the new government circular gives specific instructions to buyers. You can read it here – Circular 20/2019 : Promoting the use of Environmental and Social Considerations in Public Procurement
More ‘Top Tips’ on Tendering and Procurement Strategy
We can help suppliers to include green and social benefits in their bids and tenders. Check out our Bid Management services to see how we can help, and search for ‘Bid Management’ articles on our blog.
For buyers, we have great advice on how to include green and social requirements in RFTs. Check out our Procurement Strategy services to see how we can help, and search for ‘Procurement Strategy‘ articles on our blog.
