Small businesses have been urged to tender for more State contracts as the Coalition seeks to open up the public procurement process.

Representatives from over 800 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) attended a special "Meet the Buyer" event in Dublin. The event, which was organised by InterTradeIreland, sought to highlight the range of opportunities in the €12.2 billion public procurement sector.

Small firms
The Government is hoping to encourage more small businesses to consider tendering for State contracts as part of its programme of wider reform.

According to TenderScout, a newly formed company that advises small firms on the procurement process, only 10 per cent of SMEs in Ireland bother to compete for tenders.

Minister of State for Public Service Reform Brian Hayes told attendees that there are plenty of opportunities for small businesses willing to capitalise on public tenders. The event was also addressed by Paul Quinn, the State's chief procurement officer, who said that reform of public procurement would lead to improvements to the tender process, which is seen by some small firms s as difficult to negotiate.

'Huge opportunity'
"State contracts represent a huge opportunity for SMEs to win steady business and maintain stable cash flow," he said.

Major public sector organisations, including the Health Service Executive, Northern Ireland Electricity, An Garda Síochána, Central Bank of Ireland, Irish Rail, NI Water and ESB Networks, met small business owners at the event to raise awareness of the kinds of service they put out to tender.