Public Procurement

Ireland

DISMISSAL OF PROCUREMENT CHALLENGE

The High Court in Ireland dismissed a challenge to a decision by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, following a competitive dialogue procedure, to award a contract for certain services. The judgment in Kerrigan Sheanon Newman v Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland and Abtran [2026] IEHC 70 sets out useful commentary on challenges in respect of tender ambiguities and abnormally low tenders, as well as the management of commercially sensitive evidence during the course of procurement challenges.

Our briefing on the judgment is available here: Public Procurement Update: Treatment of confidential information in procurement cases; abnormally low tenders; refresh on RWIND and tender ambiguities.

GREEN PUBLIC PROCUREMENT

The Environment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2026 is now signed into law, but not yet commenced. It includes amendments to the Circular Economy and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 2022 which introduce:

a new section 7A, requiring the Minister to designate a public body which will prepare criteria that may be applied in respect of goods, services or works being procured in order to support the objectives of protecting the environment, promoting environmental sustainability and supporting the transition to a circular economy (“green public procurement criteria”).
a new section 7B, requiring public bodies to report annually on integration of green public procurement criteria into their procurements.

CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE BILL

The Government approved the General Scheme of the Critical Infrastructure Bill, one of the initiatives to emerge from the Government’s Accelerating Infrastructure Plan. Further details are in our construction section.

CAPITAL WORKS MANAGEMENT FRAMEWORK

As mentioned in our construction section, the Department of Public Expenditure updated Guidance Note 1.6.3 on pre-qualification of consultants using minimum standards for selection criteria. The guidance is relevant for the procurement of technical consultants (COE1 Contract), archaeologists (COE2 Contract), and design build contracts (Contractor’s Designer) using the PW-CF2 and PW-CF4 pre-qualification procedures.

EU

PUBLIC PROCUREMENT REFORM

The European Commission is revising public procurement law to modernise and simplify what has become a somewhat fragmented framework and to enable more strategic use of public procurement for sustainability and economic resilience. The European Commission is expected to publish a legislative proposal in Q2 of 2026.

The EU-wide networks of electricity system operators released a joint statement on public procurement reform, advocating simplified procedures and voluntary, rather than mandatory, non-price criteria which take account of specific characteristics and maturity level of grid technologies; a fit-for-purpose procurement framework with greater flexibility to respond to market dynamics; and competition and cost-effectiveness in procurement through introduction of increased threshold values and innovation-friendly procurement.

INDUSTRIAL ACCELERATOR ACT

The European Commission proposed a Regulation to establish a framework of measures for the acceleration of industrial capacity and decarbonisation in strategic sectors. The proposed Regulation would introduce ‘Union origin’ requirements, low-carbon requirements, or both, to certain public procurement procedures. It also sets conditions on foreign direct investments in emerging strategic sectors.

We look at the proposed Regulation in our briefing: The EU Industrial Accelerator Act: Impacts on renewable energy auctions, public procurement and FDI.

ELECTRONIC INVOICING

The European Commission is consulting until 18 March 2026 on a revision to the EU rules on electronic invoicing in public procurement. It aims to address shortcomings identified when the current rules were evaluated, ensure harmonised electronic invoicing across the EU, and ensure harmonised implementation and interoperability.

FOREIGN SUBSIDIES REGULATION

The European Commission published a summary of the responses it received to its consultation on performance of the Foreign Subsidies Regulation. Some areas for improvement were noted, including requests for more clarity around concepts like “foreign financial contributions”. Respondents were from 14 countries which did not include Ireland.

The Foreign Subsidies Regulation aims to prevent distortions in the internal market including in the context of public procurement procedures. It requires companies to notify contracting authorities/entities when the estimated value of the contract exceeds €250 million, and when the company has been granted at least €4 million in foreign financial contributions from a third country in the three years before the notification. European Commission Guidelines on the Regulation are available.

International

FIDIC

As mentioned in our construction section, FIDIC has published its new Carbon Management Guide, along with accompanying guidelines for the Red Book 2017 (2022 print run) and White Book 2017. These materials are intended to provide practical and contractual tools to embed carbon management in every stage of the project lifecycle.