Clare County Council is being urged to use EU law to boost the county’s low disability employment rate.
Under Article 20 of the European Union’s Public Procurement Directive, public bodies like Clare County Council can restrict some tendering processes to firms where 30% of the workforce is disadvantaged.
Currently, just one-third of disabled people over the age of 15 in Clare are in employment, which is almost 20% below the EU average.
Scariff Independent MEP Michael McNamara says the legislation needs to be implemented without delay.
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Following a query from Clare FM, Clare County Council issued the following response
The use of Article 20 of the EU’s Public Procurement Directive is open to Clare County Council staff who can pursue it on the basis of Article 20 suppliers meeting the goods/services requirement and specification. It would be necessary that the supported employment organisations can meet the specific requirement and provide value for money, before conducting the procurement exercise.
Please note that separate to Article 20, last year Clare County Council adopted a measure to promote and facilitate social considerations in its public procurement procedures. The Council signed off on an Employment, Supply Chain and Social Considerations Charter.
This charter was adopted as a measure to include social considerations, support for SMEs, and training, education and employment opportunities when awarding public contracts. The central idea behind the charter is that Clare County Council can consider allocating a percentage of the marks when evaluating a tender to measures that the contractor proposes in respect of the above social considerations.
The charter is in keeping with the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform policy on “Promoting the use of Environmental and Social Considerations in Public Procurement” which aims to promote and facilitate the incorporation of social considerations into public procurement procedures. The charter also reflects and is complementary to the themes in the new Clare Local Economic and Community Plan.
