1762. Deputy Holly Cairns asked the Minister for Rural and Community Development to provide details of any public contracts in her Department provided to companies or individuals who do not pay tax in Ireland, including the names of the contractor, value of the contract and purpose of the contract, in tabular form. [2041/25]

The Department of Rural and Community Development is committed to achieving value for money for the acquisition of goods and services which are essential to support its work. In this context competitive tendering for contracts is used by my Department, supported through use of the Procurement Guidelines for Goods and Services published by the Office of Government Procurement (OGP), making use of the OGP central framework agreements wherever possible.

Procurement takes place in accordance with the Directive on Public Procurement and the European Union (Award of Public Authority Contracts) Regulations 2016, which enable fair competition between suppliers through advertisement of tender competitions. It is open to companies and individuals who are tax resident outside of Ireland to participate in these tender competitions.

It is a condition of a contract award by my Department that all successful tenderer(s), for the term of any contract(s), are in compliance with all EU and domestic tax laws. Successful tenderers must supply their Tax Clearance Access Number and the Tax Reference Number to the Department to facilitate online verification of their tax status prior to any payments being made.

However, this documentation does not provide information as to the tax residency of suppliers. Therefore, as this information is not available to my Department, I am not in a position to provide any detail in relation to the matter raised by the Deputy.