Reform Strategy

STATEMENT BY THE CHAIRPERSON OF CIF’S PROCUREMENT, TENDERING AND CONTRACTUAL MATTERS SUBCOMMITTEE

The reform of public procurement and contracts has been a core policy of the Construction Industry Federation (CIF) for many years. While there has been welcome and meaningful reform over the last few years, CIF believes that further and accelerated reform is necessary to support the delivery of the critical infrastructure to support Housing for All, climate action, and critically to funding all of this, foreign direct investment.

Construction contractors are essential to building Irish infrastructure, such as water, energy, transport, education and healthcare. This is required to support the Irish economy, which in turn supports our society, communities and housing. Unfortunately, CIF members believe that public procurement remains an unattractive option for a significant portion of the Irish construction industry because of delays, unfair risk transfer, low price tendering, low margins, bureaucracy and the cost of tendering.

This is not sustainable if we are to address our infrastructural deficit and meet the demands of a growing population. CIF is supported in its views by a recent EU report on public procurement, and the Housing Commission’s Report, all of which align with the need to make public procurement more attractive. In this light, CIF has produced this strategic document entitled ‘Strategy for the Improved Delivery of Public Infrastructure’ to set out the rationale for the reform and what this reform looks like.

CIF looks forward to working closely with the Office of Government Procurement to put in place a reformed public procurement system and contract, which delivers value to the taxpayer, while supporting the construction industry as a critical partner of the Irish State.

Seamus Duggan, Chair of the PT&CM Sub-Committee

Reform of the Public Procurement System

Video series

The CIF believes that to deliver the essential infrastructure like water, wastewater, transport and energy, to support housing, FDI and the broader economy, will require significant further and accelerated reform of the public procurement system and the contract itself.

In this light, the CIF has developed the below video series to highlight the rationale for further reform and what this reform looks like. The video series is also supported by a policy document, all of which are available on the CIF’s Contracting Resource Hub.