COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

Monday, December 12, 2011

QUESTION NO. 14

QUESTION: Councillor W. Lavelle

To ask the Manager if this Council maintains a register of local SME’s for the purpose of inviting quotations for procurement and if so if the Council will share such register with other public bodies based in the county?

REPLY:

The Council does not maintain a procurement register of local SME's.

South Dublin County Council is conscious that SMEs are very important to the economy and that public procurement can be an important source of business for them.  The Council is particularly conscious of the importance and potential which exists for below- tender threshold selling opportunities for SMEs and Small Firms. 

As a starting point extensive engagement with the South Dublin Chamber of Commerce in relation to these opportunities is taking place and the Council recently participated in the first ever South Dublin Chamber Public Procurement Seminar at which there was open, honest and stimulating debate in relation to purchasing opportunities.  It was agreed at that seminar that the SD Chamber would provide details of its database to South Dublin County Council who will in turn make this available on its central in-house procurement homepage .

The Council is pleased to report that it recently rolled out its in-house procurement reform and awareness programme during which particular focus was placed on the need to advance the principles of Circuar Letter 10/10 Facilitating SME Participation in Public Procurement and being mindful that not all SMEs are part of the SD Chamber a number of links have also been provided on the internal procurement homepage to local / Dublin directories.