Crowe Welcomes Broad Support For Social Clauses Bill
Dublin South West TD Seán Crowe has welcomed the broad support for a Sinn Féin Bill on the mandatory inclusion of social clauses in public contracts. Crowe was speaking on the Bill in Leinster House and said that it has real potential to protect the vulnerable and marginalised ensuring real value for money when it comes to state contracts.
Deputy Sean Crowe said:
“It was rare but refreshing to hear the positive and broad political support for the our Social Clauses elements in this Public Procurement Bill. The Bill attracted speakers from all shades of opinion in the house and there was a welcome consensus on its core objectives.
“The Bill in essence adopts a common sense approach and lays out how public purchasers and suppliers will be legally required to protect the vulnerable, promotes other social goals and community benefits. This we believe can be done by including social clauses in public contracts. Social clauses can be used as a tool for getting more value out of every public euro spent.
“The Sinn Féin Bill legislates for the mandatory inclusion of social clauses in all public procurement contracts worth over one million euro.The state currently spends about 9 billion euro each year on goods and services.
“While social clauses have been included in a very small number of public contracts, they are not currently part of legislation.
“New EU rules now mean that the Government is now legally obliged to legislate on the issues around social clauses. This will enable public authorities to put more emphasis on social considerations while still taking account of price considerations
“Our Bill offers a simple but strong start around where this EU legislation could be built upon and its to be welcomed that the Government has expressed support for our legislation.
“Sinn Féin have already shown that progress is also possible at local authority level with our proposed legislation. In March 2014, the Sinn Féin Dublin City Council Group succeeded in passing a motion on including social procurement clauses in council contracts based on the principles behind this Bill.
“ Sinn Féin has also successfully pursued the inclusion of social clauses in public contracts in the North and there is no logical reason why such an approach cannot be rolled out on an all-island basis.
“It is not just a matter of promising what can done we should be learning from best practice and learning from other jurisdictions what can be done and delivered for all our people .”