How to bid for public tenders in Ireland.

Ireland at a glance

Every public contract, whatever its value, is subject to the EU Treaty principles of non-discrimination, equal treatment, proportionality and transparency. Five central purchasing bodies run frameworks across the public sector:

• the OGP itself;
• the Education Procurement Service;
• the HSE (health);
• the Local Government Operational Procurement Centre;
• the Department of Defence.

Buyers must use these frameworks where they exist, so getting onto them is how many suppliers win repeat work.

Thresholds and procedures

EU thresholds from 1 January 2026:

• Award notices: every contract above €25,000 must have its award published on eTenders, including framework call-offs.
• Minimum bid periods: 35 days for an EU open procedure (30 days with electronic submission, as little as 15 with a prior information notice or in urgency). A restricted procedure gets 30 days for requests to participate, then 30 days for tenders.
• Below the EU thresholds, buyers should use the open procedure for advertised goods and services where reasonable.

Who can bid

• Covered countries. Where the WTO Government Procurement Agreement or an EU trade agreement covers the contract, the buyer must treat that country’s companies no less favourably than EU ones.
• The UK. UK suppliers are covered through the GPA and the EU–UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement, which extends coverage to some utilities and services.
• Countries without an agreement. Since the EU Court’s Kolin ruling (2024), companies from countries without an agreement can be admitted at the buyer’s discretion, but can’t rely on the EU rules or claim equal treatment. See how companies from outside the EU can bid for EU tenders.
• Legal form. A company can’t be rejected just because Irish law would expect a different legal form.
• Consortia can bid without forming a company; a legal form can be required only after award, and only if necessary. The OGP actively encourages SME consortia.
• Turnover. Requirements are capped at twice the contract value unless justified, and financial evidence is usually requested only from shortlisted or winning bidders.

Tax clearance: the step foreign firms miss

• When you need it: you must hold Irish tax clearance for any public contract worth €10,000 or more, including VAT, in any 12-month period, even without a formal written contract.
• Registered for Irish tax (with or without a branch): apply through eTax Clearance on ROS or myAccount. You’ll get a Tax Clearance Access Number that buyers verify online.
• No Irish tax registration: eTax Clearance isn’t available. Use the paper Form TC1, sent to Revenue’s Non-Residents Unit.
• How long it lasts: clearance stays valid for up to four years while your tax affairs stay in order, and can be withdrawn if they don’t.
• Construction: payments to contractors and subcontractors fall under Relevant Contracts Tax, deducted at 0%, 20% or 35% depending on your compliance record. Non-resident subcontractors working in Ireland are included.

Registering and bidding on eTenders, step by step

1. Sort out tax clearance early, if the contract could reach €10,000 including VAT.
2. Register your organisation on eTenders with a DUNS, VAT or company registration number. The manual doesn’t limit this to Irish numbers. If you have none, contact the system administrator.
3. Name an administrator. An eTenders administrator approves the registration, and you get a transaction number by email for your first login.
4. Set your CPV codes and buyers of interest. Daily alerts match only the exact codes you choose, not their sub-categories.
5. Upload reusable evidence to your profile: insurance, health and safety, accounts and certificates.
6. Find a competition and read the documents, often before expressing interest.
7. Register an expression of interest. You need this to get notifications and to ask or see clarification questions.
8. Build your tender online in the eligibility, technical and financial sections, and complete the ESPD where asked.
9. Submit before the deadline. Every section needs to show 100% complete. You get a tender receipt ID, but that confirms upload, not compliance. To change a bid, resubmit it in full.
10. Watch for the award letter and use your standstill and debrief rights.

Evidence and insurance

• The ESPD: above the EU thresholds, buyers must accept it as preliminary evidence. Supporting documents are requested from the winner before award.
• Insurance: for routine low-to-medium-risk goods and services, the OGP’s guide levels are:
  • employer’s liability €12.7 million;
  • public liability €6.5 million per claim;
  • product liability €6.5 million where relevant. Bidders declare they can obtain cover and prove it only if they win.
• Exclusion: unpaid taxes or social contributions can get you excluded, but paying or agreeing a binding arrangement removes the ground.

Works: the Capital Works Management Framework

• What it is: public works and works-related services use the Capital Works Management Framework (CWMF). It provides standard contracts, suitability questionnaires, instructions to tenderers and forms of tender (constructionprocurement.gov.ie).
• 2023 reforms: the public works contracts gained liability caps for contractors and index-based price variation. Inflation recovery now starts within a 3–10% band the authority chooses, down from 15%.
• Performance bonds: works contracts above €500,000 generally require one. CWMF guidance has been reported at 12.5% of the contract value up to €10 million, and 10% above that. Check the tender documents for the current requirement.
• Local authorities also run frameworks and dynamic purchasing systems through the LGOPC. Mini-competitions under them run on SupplyGov.ie.

Payment

• By law: public authorities must pay within 30 days. That can be extended to 60 days only if expressly agreed and justified. Late payment brings automatic interest plus €40, €70 or €100 compensation, depending on the size of the debt.
• By government policy: public bodies (excluding commercial semi-state companies) pay within 15 calendar days of a valid invoice. It’s a government decision, not law.

How bids are evaluated

• The standard: contracts go to the most economically advantageous tender (MEAT). That can mean price or cost, including life-cycle cost, or the best price-quality ratio with quality, environmental or social criteria.
• Weightings must be stated in the documents. Fixed-price, quality-only competitions are allowed.
• Unusually low tenders: the buyer must ask you to explain. It can reject only if your explanation doesn’t account for the price, and must reject if the low price comes from breaking environmental, social or labour law.
• SMEs: the OGP’s SME circular (05/2023) asks buyers to:
  • consult the market;
  • split contracts into lots, giving reasons if they don’t above the EU thresholds;
  • keep selection criteria proportionate;
  • judge start-ups on their staff’s experience;
  • give feedback to unsuccessful bidders;
  • never charge for tender documents.
• Green criteria: under Circular 17/2025, national green procurement criteria are expected in tenders above the national thresholds.

Challenging a decision

1. Standstill. The contract can’t be signed for at least 14 calendar days after the award letter if it’s sent electronically (16 days otherwise). The court can’t authorise signing during the standstill. There’s no standstill for framework call-offs, single-bidder cases or contracts that didn’t need an EU notice.
2. The award letter must give:
   • the reasons for the decision;
   • the winner’s name;
   • the winning tender’s characteristics and relative advantages, often as your scores and the winner’s, criterion by criterion. You can also request written reasons, which are due within 15 days.
3. Before going to court, notify the authority in writing of the alleged breach, your intention to apply and your grounds.
4. Apply to the High Court within 30 calendar days of being notified, or of when you knew or should have known. The court can extend that only for good reason. Claims that a contract is ineffective have 30 days after a compliant notice, otherwise 6 months.
5. Automatic suspension. Once you apply, the contract can’t be signed until the court decides, unless the authority successfully applies to lift the suspension. The court asks whether it would grant an injunction.
6. Remedies include setting the decision aside, damages, declaring the contract ineffective, or fines of up to 10% of the contract value.

For a live tender, the OGP’s Tender Advisory Service can help if the buyer’s clarification process hasn’t resolved your concern.

What changed in 2025–2026

• 18 July 2025: green procurement Circular 17/2025 replaced Circular 20/2019.
• 1 January 2026: new EU thresholds (€140,000 / €216,000 / €432,000 / €5,404,000).
• 5 August 2026: Ireland published its first National Public Procurement Strategy (2026–2030), with 51 actions. They include mandatory SME steps in buyers’ procurement plans, consortium-bidding support, eTenders improvements, a review of the Tender Advisory Service, and a target of 10% of tenders with social considerations.
• September 2026: the European Commission proposed a single EU Public Procurement Act. It’s a proposal only, so current Irish rules are unchanged.
• The national thresholds (€50,000 and €200,000) were reconfirmed in July 2026.

Live Irish tenders

See also how companies from outside the EU can bid for EU tenders and how to bid for EU public tenders on TED.

Questions

Sources

• S.I. No. 284/2016, European Union (Award of Public Authority Contracts) Regulations 2016
• S.I. No. 130/2010, Review Procedures Regulations
• Office of Government Procurement: Sell to Government
• eTenders
• Revenue: electronic tax clearance (Tax and Duty Manual)
• OGP Circular 05/2023: initiatives to assist SMEs in public procurement

This guide explains the rules in plain English; it isn’t legal advice. Procurement rules change, and each tender document sets its own conditions — it always prevails.