899. Deputy James Geoghegan asked the Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation the total value of non-compliant public procurement identified within his Department and in bodies under the aegis of his Department in 2025 and to date in 2026; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [57212/26]

I wish to advise the Deputy that my Department has had no instances of non-compliant procurement to report in either 2025 or to date in 2026.

The following bodies under the aegis of the Department have advised that there were no instances of non-compliant procurement during that period.

• Office of the Regulator of the National Lottery (ORNL)

• State Laboratory

• Offices of the Ombudsman

The bodies under the aegis of the Department where instances have occurred are outlined below.

National Shared Services Office (NSSO)

2025: €9,184

2026: No instances of non-compliant procurement

Public Appointments Service (PAS)

Details in relation to non-compliant public procurement for 2025 are set out below. We are not aware of any non-compliance in 2026 to date.

Publicjobs complied with the guidelines in 2025 with the exception of two contracts to the value of €488,025 (exclusive of VAT) as set out below:

• The contract with one supplier (Bidvest Noonan, value €51,745) was extended beyond its expiry date as the contract value had not been fully met due to changes in circumstances that originated during and following the Covid 19 pandemic. The contract had been originally initiated following a full Office of Government Procurement (OGP) procurement process through their framework. A new procurement exercise was conducted in 2025, and a new contract has been awarded to the successful tenderer through the OGP Framework Agreement.

• One supplier (Version 1, value €436,280) had provided critical senior software development services to publicjobs to develop, maintain and operate the recruitment (STAR) system, the publicjobs.ie website, multiple integrations and other systems. Changing to another vendor to provide support services in the final months of the STAR system being operational, would not have been economically or technically viable as onboarding a new vendor for the final months would require significant time and resources, involve significant costs and have multiple risks associated with it. The STAR system was decommissioned in Q1 2026 and we went to the market in 2026 to procure ongoing software support services.

Office of Public Works

Public procurement is governed by EU and national rules and the OPW ensures that appropriate procedures are followed for procurement activity. Departments are obliged to ensure that public procurement is discharged in line with the standard accounting and procurement rules and that contract prices represent best value for money. The information as requested is not yet fully available as details of non-compliant procurement are disclosed annually within the Appropriation Accounts. The 2025 audit by the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General is still underway and therefore the final audited figures have not yet been confirmed. The OPW will revert to the Deputy with the requested information, once the final audited figures are confirmed and the Appropriation Account is fully completed and published.