Minister Emer Higgins announces new Government Supply Expo 2025
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Breakfast Business with Enterprise Ireland on Newstalk.
What is the Government Supply Expo 2025 and why is it important?
Now, the Minister of State for Public Procurement, Digitalisation and e-Government, Eimear Higgins, has officially launched the opening of registration for Ireland's first Government Supply Expo 2025, which takes place today. She joins me now. Good morning, Minister.
Good morning, Tom. How are you?
I'm doing very well. How are you?
Yeah, great. Thanks. It's an exciting day. We have an inauguration and we have our first ever Government Supplier Expo.
Fantastic. Well, before you explain what this particular expo means, can you explain, there may be one listener out there who doesn't understand what an expo is. Can you tell us what an expo is and then tell us what Government Supplier Expo 2025 is?
Absolutely. So I suppose it's an interactive exhibit. Basically, what we have happening today in the Viva Stadium is the first ever conference, if you want to call it that, about government procurement. But it's much more engaging than just a conference. We have, for example, a Meet the Buyer area with the likes of the HSE, the ESB, Education Procurement Services, Transport Infrastructure Ireland. We have loads of talks. We have loads of panel discussions. But we also have our own app, in fact, to help people learn as much as they can and make all they can out of today. But we also have 50 exhibitors. So that means the people who are actually purchasing on behalf of the state, the likes of Engage the Econa, Unput, Central Bank, Irish Rail, Dublin Airport Authority, Enterprise Ireland, the LDA and so many more.
And I'm very excited to say that we have 4,300 people registered, most of whom are from the procurement and the SME community coming along. And I think that's great because this is a free event. It's still open for registration. So if you have some time today, please do have a look at it because honestly, it's going to be worth your investment. It's an opportunity to learn how to successfully tender for government business. And I suppose the bottom line is the state is the biggest buyer in Ireland. So it's worth knowing how to do that.
And it's on between, just to give it another, it's on between nine o'clock and four o'clock in the Aviva Stadium. And as you mentioned, it's free to attend.
What activities and features can attendees expect at the expo?
Do you have to register? Can you just turn up at the door?
You have to register, but it's an online registration. It takes two minutes less than that, in fact, and it's still open for registration. And that's just so that we can keep an eye on who's registered and also so we can keep in touch with people if they opt in to keep them up to date with what's happening in our Office of Government Procurement. The government has an entire office, the OGP, Office of Government Procurement. And my team there, along with the team in InterTrade Ireland, who run some fantastic courses, educating entrepreneurs and SMEs on how to tender for government contracts are running today. And they put a lot of work into it. And I think it's going to be a really, really successful day.
So what types of goods and services are we talking about here? Is it everything from government new buildings to pencils and pens?
You said it. That's a great line, actually, Tom. Yeah, I mean, the state, as I said, is the biggest buyer in the whole of Ireland. So billions of euro of business is tendered for every year. I was just looking on the eTenders website last night. So eTenders is the website that all of our suppliers register with, and you'll be able to see all of the live tenders on it. And in the last week, there's been 173 new tenders gone live on that website. So there's everything gone live in the last week from, for example, graphic design, event management, communications, payroll services, engineering consultancy, things like water testing and the marking of car parks, the provision of hot school meals, the installation of new playgrounds, legal services being procured, and training was being procured by Sligo, where I was just myself on Friday with Deputy Frank Fian to meet with Sligo Chamber of Commerce.
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