To sell to the Irish government, first check whether your category is bought centrally by the OGP, the Office of Government Procurement, or another central purchasing body. Then register as a supplier on eTenders and find the person inside each public body who actually uses what you sell.
One number frames the whole market. Any goods or services contract worth more than EUR 50,000 before VAT has to go on eTenders as a public advert. Below that line, a public body can contact suppliers directly for quotes (OGP, Sell to Government).
A second number does most of the work for a seller. Once a contract worth more than EUR 25,000 before VAT is signed, the award has to appear on eTenders (OGP open data). That turns the award record into a free list of who bought what, from whom, and when.
Goods and services only here. Construction works and grid projects are bought differently, so they have their own guides: selling to Irish construction contracts and selling to Irish grid suppliers. I read public procurement like any market: start from who paid last time, work out who made the call, then decide when to talk to them.
How does Irish public sector buying actually work?
Buying for the Irish public service is split by sector. The OGP and its sourcing partners share responsibility for 16 categories of goods and services. The OGP also says there are five central purchasing bodies (CPBs), the organizations that set up shared contracts for whole sectors (OGP, Sell to Government). The partner sectors are health, local government, education and defense (US International Trade Administration, Ireland guide).
The OGP's search for central arrangements covers arrangements from the OGP itself, the education sector's Education Procurement Service (EPS) and the local authority sector's Local Government Operational Procurement Centre (LGOPC) (OGP support FAQ). There is no OGP list of favored suppliers to get onto. What it publishes are the member lists of its frameworks and contracts.
A CPB puts central arrangements in place. These are frameworks and contracts the wider public sector can buy through. Before you do anything else, check whether your category already sits under one.
That single check splits sellers into two groups.
Your category is covered centrally. The competition that decides who supplies it is run by a CPB, on that CPB's schedule. Individual bodies then use what was set up. Your real window opens when that arrangement goes back to market.
Your category is not covered. Each department, agency, council, university or hospital buys it for itself, under the thresholds in the next section. You face many small buyers, each with its own people and its own calendar.
I never treat "the government" as one customer. It is many separate buyers. I count the bodies that buy the category first, then plan each one on its own.
When do Irish bodies have to advertise on eTenders?
For goods and services, EUR 50,000 excluding VAT is the advertising line. Above it, the contract must go on eTenders. From EUR 5,000 up to that line, a body may award the contract using a written specification sent to at least three suppliers (OGP guidance for SMEs).
The publication rule sits on top of that. Award details for any contract over EUR 25,000 excluding VAT go on eTenders when the contract is signed, even if the procurement itself ran somewhere else (OGP open data). The higher advertising threshold and the award publication rule both came in through Circular 05/2023 (OGP, Sell to Government).
Put together, the rules look like this from the seller's side:
| Contract value, goods and services, ex VAT | How the body buys | Public advert required? | Award published on eTenders? | Who you need to know |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| EUR 5,000 to 25,000 | Written specification to at least 3 suppliers | No | Not covered by the EUR 25,000 rule | The business owner, who decides which suppliers get asked |
| Over EUR 25,000 up to 50,000 | Same quote route | No | Yes, after signing | The business owner, and the notice shows who won |
| Above EUR 50,000 | Advertised competition on eTenders | Yes | Yes, after signing | The business owner shapes the need, procurement runs the process |
| Category under a central arrangement | Bought through what the CPB set up | Yes, when the CPB runs the competition above EUR 50,000 | Yes, above EUR 25,000 | The CPB sourcing team for the competition, business owners for the experience of using it |
Below EUR 50,000, the body picks who gets asked to quote, and no public advert is required. Some bodies run these quotes through eTenders with registered suppliers, one more reason to register early. If the person who needs the service has never heard of you, you are unlikely to be among the suppliers asked.
Above EUR 50,000, any registered supplier can respond. But somebody inside the body described the requirement first. A supplier who understood their problem months earlier reads that notice very differently from one seeing it cold on day one.
Above EUR 25,000, the result becomes public, which is what the next two sections use.
Who actually buys in Irish public bodies?
Every public purchase has two owners, and sellers mix them up all the time.
The procurement officer owns the process. They make sure it follows the rules, publish the notice and run the evaluation paperwork. They are rarely the person with the problem.
The business owner owns the need. That is the unit head who asked for the service, has to make it work, and lives with the supplier for the length of the contract.
Start with two sources: your own past public contracts and everybody else's published awards. With a seller's own history, I go back through past deals, ask who signed off on each one, then look for the same role at similar buyers.
Titles vary by body. The two department grades follow the civil service career path. Treat the other rows as a starting point and check each body's org chart and LinkedIn pages. The titles worth knowing are below. In my campaigns I build every list around the real titles in the niche and never fall back on a generic "manager".
| Title | Where you find it | Usual part in a purchase | How to treat them |
|---|---|---|---|
| Assistant secretary | Government departments, heading a division | Senior sponsor of the business area | Context and sign-off, rarely the first contact |
| Principal officer | Government departments, heading a unit | Often owns the requirement and the working relationship with the supplier | Your main target in a department |
| Head of ICT or CIO | Agencies, the Health Service Executive (HSE), councils, universities | Owns technology categories | Your main target for ICT work |
| Head of facilities or estates | Most larger bodies | Owns buildings and facilities services | Your main target for facilities work |
| Procurement officer or procurement manager | Every body | Runs the process and keeps it compliant | Process questions only, never the pitch |
The award itself tells you which row to look at. An ICT services award points to the head of ICT. A facilities award points to whoever runs estates. A consulting award in a department points to the principal officer of the unit that will use the advice.
The Public Appointments Service says an assistant secretary typically heads a division and sits on the department's management board. It says a principal officer typically leads a unit or division and oversees the implementation of the department's objectives.
How do you read eTenders and award notices to build a buyer list?
Registration comes first. eTenders connects public buyers with suppliers, and a supplier has to register to respond to a tender. The platform has guidance videos and a short guide to submitting a tender response (eTenders supplier guidance). Do it now, so a deadline never catches you halfway through a sign-up.
Then treat the platform as a research tool. The OGP publishes eTenders data as an open dataset with notice records, award records, procedure details and supplier information. It spans every competition published from 1 January 2013 to 30 June 2026 and is updated regularly.
Here is how to turn it into a buyer list:
- Filter the awards to your category, using the words a buyer would put in a title for what you sell.
- For each award, record the body, what was bought, the value, the award date, the winning supplier and the procedure.
- Group the rows by body. A body that bought your category more than once is likely to buy it again.
- Mark the incumbent on each body. That supplier's contract is the one you are positioning against.
- Mark the bodies that buy through a central arrangement, because their decision sits with a CPB.
- Put a name and real title next to each remaining body, using the map above.
In many categories the Irish buyers are few enough to count by hand, and intent data adds little in a market that small. In my campaigns I use intent data only when a market is large. In a market of about 2,000 target companies where only about 10 show intent signals, I skip it and build an offer the whole market wants.
The list carries more of the result than the message ever will, which is why I check the list before anyone touches the email. A well written email sent to the procurement inbox of the wrong body is still wasted.
What is changing in Irish procurement for SMEs?
Procuring for Our Future 2026 to 2030 is the first strategy Ireland has written for public buying as a whole. It applies to all public service bodies, covers goods, services and works, and its vision backs SMEs, open competition, good use of public money and better services. It contains 51 actions (the strategy page).
The first pillar is the one sellers should read. It sets out to make it easier for SMEs to take part, including start-ups, microenterprises and social enterprises (Pillar 1 actions). Among its actions:
- Public bodies must explain in their Corporate Procurement Plans how they will support SME participation.
- The OGP will analyze eTenders data to track SME participation and spot sectors with low competition.
- At least three information sessions a year for suppliers, starting in 2026.
- A supplier exhibition held every second year from 2027. The 2025 Government Supply Expo drew 2,900 participants.
- Revised guidance for public bodies on SME participation by the end of Q4 2027.
The OGP's SME guidance lists the measures that change what a small supplier can bid for. Contracts can be divided into lots. Consortia bidding is provided for. Financial capacity and insurance requirements are meant to be proportionate.
Here is how I read those measures from the seller's side:
- Lots let a smaller supplier, for example a 20-person company, bid for a regional or category slice instead of the whole national contract.
- Consortia let two specialists cover a scope neither covers alone.
- Corporate Procurement Plans tell you, body by body, what that body has committed to. Read the plan of every body on your list.
- Low competition sectors are where a new supplier faces the fewest rivals, and the OGP has committed to measuring them.
How do you reach the buyer before the framework is retendered?
The award date is your calendar. Take each award in your category, add the contract length you expect for that kind of service, and you get a rough month when that body or CPB could be back in the market. Your outreach should land long before that month, while the need is still being discussed rather than written down.
Long lead times are normal here. Public buyers rarely decide fast. A first conversation this year may only turn into a bid when the next competition opens.
Contracts also lock buyers in for years. The Office of Government Procurement defines a framework agreement as generally lasting no more than 4 years in the public sector. Its legal services framework runs for up to 2 years, with up to two 1-year extensions. Miss a retender and the next one can be years away.
Use this rule to decide where to aim:
| If this is true | Contact first | What you are after |
|---|---|---|
| Your category sits under a central arrangement and its next competition is far off | Business owners in bodies that use that arrangement | What the current setup does badly, which becomes your bid material |
| That arrangement is coming back to market | The CPB sourcing team, through its published process and events | A clear view of the competition, then a bid |
| The body buys your category itself, below EUR 50,000 | The business owner | A place among the suppliers asked next time |
| The body buys it itself, above EUR 50,000 | The business owner, months before the notice | Understanding the problem before anyone writes the requirement |
| You only need to know how a body buys | The procurement officer | Process answers, nothing more |
The size of the market changes the plan. Many categories have a short list of Irish buyers, so a volume approach has little room to run. Once the bodies are counted, decide how deep to go into each one. The same counting decides any market, as covered in picking the market before the first email goes out.
Keep the first message short. Name the category the body bought, give one result from a similar organization, and ask for a short call on how the current arrangement is working. Leave any upcoming tender out of it completely, and do not pitch your service in the first message. It only has to earn the conversation, because calls come out of conversations and clients come out of calls.
This only pays if you already have public sector proof and the capacity to deliver more of it, so run the checks on who outbound actually suits on your own company first.
By the time the notice is public, the requirement is already written.
What should a supplier do in the first 30 days?
- Week 1. Choose one category and one type of body, such as councils, HSE services or government departments. Search the OGP central arrangements to see whether your category is covered.
- Week 1. Register on eTenders as a supplier.
- Week 2. Pull the award data for your category and fill in the six columns from the list section.
- Week 2. Group by body, mark repeat buyers and incumbents, and estimate when each will be back in the market.
- Week 3. Put two or three real titles against each priority body. Note the procurement officer as a process contact only.
- Week 3. Write the first message around what that body bought and one comparable result.
- Week 4. Start outreach on the bodies whose next market date is closest.
With a small public sector list, use LinkedIn and email together as one sequence rather than two separate campaigns. Buyers check you before they answer, so the profile behind the message has to show public sector proof. For order and spacing, see running LinkedIn and email as one sequence. Construction buyers in Ireland are a separate group, covered in how to get public construction contracts in Ireland.
Selling to the Irish government and unsure how to reach the buyer before a framework is retendered? Book a call and we can look at it.
Questions suppliers ask about selling to the Irish government
How much does the Irish public sector spend with suppliers each year?
Irish public bodies spend more than EUR 22 billion a year on purchases, according to the U.S. International Trade Administration. That figure combines every department, council, hospital and university, so the share open to any one firm is far smaller. To size your own opportunity, add up the past contracts in your category for the bodies you plan to approach. That gives a more realistic number than the national total.
Which central purchasing bodies operate in Ireland?
The Office of Government Procurement says Ireland has five. The central arrangements search covers the OGP, the Education Procurement Service (EPS) and the Local Government Operational Procurement Centre (LGOPC). Each one sets up shared frameworks and contracts: the OGP for common goods and services, the others mainly for their own sector.
Match your offer to the sector it mostly serves, such as schools to EPS or councils to LGOPC. Then follow that body's competition calendar instead of tracking every department one by one.
Is subcontracting a way into Irish public sector work?
One route worth testing is subcontracting under a supplier that already holds the contract. An incumbent may need a specialist, depending on its contract terms. Approach firms that won recent contracts in your field and offer to handle the part of the scope they do least well. Delivering well as a subcontractor can also give you public sector references to point to in later bids.
What are CPV codes and how should a supplier choose them?
CPV stands for Common Procurement Vocabulary. It is the shared European coding system that tags each tender by what is being bought. Compare the codes on the past contracts you collected with the categories you sell, and use them as search terms when you filter awards and notices on eTenders.
Can a company based outside Ireland sell to Irish public bodies?
The route into public tenders is the same for any supplier: register on eTenders, then respond to the ones that fit. Irish contracting authorities advertise their public competitions on a single site, eTenders, which the OGP describes as the central facility for the whole public sector, so one registration covers every advertised competition.
Before bidding, check each tender's own requirements, because documents and insurance expectations differ by competition. Buyers tend to engage faster with a supplier they see as local, so if you are based abroad, open with Irish or nearby references where you have them.