The Department of Finance issued new procurement guidelines to enable SMEs to access Ireland's public procurement market of €16 billion per year, so it is an important market for small and medium businesses to be able to access. However, until now, public contracts have been difficult for SMEs to win because the tendering processes tended to favour larger companies that had more resources."

The guidelines encourage:

· competitions to be designed to include and not exclude SMEs
· public sector buyers to consult the market place
· better advertising of opportunities
· reduced administrative burden
· removal of traditional barriers to entry
· sub-dividing of large contracts into manageable lots
· driving innovation and sustainable purchasing
· encouraging companies to bid together.

See attached guidelines for more details.