925. Deputy John Brady asked the Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation the measures currently in place to prevent businesses engaging in cartel like behaviour in the sharing of public contracts; if sanctions against companies in other jurisdictions are monitored and accounted for; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [58990/26]

All contracting authorities are required to conduct public procurement processes in accordance with national and EU procurement rules, which are designed to ensure transparency, equal treatment, and fair competition. It is my Department’s vision to have a public procurement system that enhances transparency throughout the procurement lifecycle, strengthening public trust and supplier confidence.

As a division of my Department, the Policy, Service Delivery, eProcurement, Data Analytics and Systems Division (Office of Government Procurement) is responsible for national public procurement policy, eProcurement, the national eTendering platform, service delivery, and procurement data. The OGP engages on an ongoing basis with a wide range of stakeholders, including the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) which is the statutory body responsible for promoting compliance with, and enforcing, competition and consumer protection law in Ireland.

The OGP and CCPC collaborate to promote awareness of collusive tendering amongst public buyers and suppliers. Through the OGP’s Public Procurement Guidelines for Goods and Services, contracting authorities are directed to the CCPC Business Guide for detecting bid rigging and cartels. Where a contracting authority suspects bid rigging or any form of collusive tendering, such behaviour constitutes a serious infringement of competition law. In these instances, buyers are advised to report findings promptly to the CCPC.

Building on this work, the forthcoming National Public Procurement Strategy includes actions aimed at addressing collusion in public procurement. In particular, Objective 1 of the Strategy seeks to promote a procurement system that is transparent, fair and legally robust, that earns and maintains public trust by ensuring that public money is spent in an efficient and responsible way.

In addition, the Government’s Action Plan on Competitiveness and Productivity, includes measures to:

- Provide the CCPC with new powers to impose administrative financial sanctions in respect of breaches of consumer protection legislation.

- Provide the CCPC with new powers to undertake Bid Rigging Screening which is a form of anti-competitive behaviour where a number of suppliers come together and agree not to compete against one-another for a tender or contract. This power will be of enhanced importance in the context of the State’s ambitious capital expenditure plans.

The Action Plan is available at: https://enterprise.gov.ie/en/publications/publication-files/action-plan-on-competitiveness-and-productivity.pdf

The CCPC is working with European colleagues on exploring the possibility of creating a shared tool for finding bid-rigging. These tools should lower the cost of setting up and managing the process of screening procurement data to find bid-rigging. The CCPC’s approach to developing a screening tool will eventually be part of an overall EU approach. [ www.ccpc.ie ]