Ireland: Sustainability and Strategy
In 2025, Ireland made bold steps in modernising public procurement, with a strong focus on sustainability and digitalisation.
Circular 17/2025 was the year’s most significant update, making green public procurement (GPP) mandatory across government bodies. Public buyers must now include environmental criteria in tenders or justify their omission. This aligns with Ireland’s “Buying Greener” Strategy 2024–2027, aiming to reduce carbon emissions and drive circular economy practices. A landmark example was the €30 million framework for remanufactured laptops for the public sector, a first-of-its-kind deal expected to cut IT carbon footprints by over 90%. The Office of Government Procurement (OGP) also advanced its Digital Procurement Roadmap, planning a full transition to integrated e-procurement systems by 2031.
Ireland continued consultations on its National Public Procurement Strategy, due for approval in late 2025. Updates to public works contracts reflected economic stabilisation, adjusting price variation clauses as inflation eased.
European Union: Procurement Reform and Green Mandates
The European Commission launched a review of the EU Public Procurement Directives, signalling a likely shift in 2026–27 toward simpler, more strategic rules. Priorities include cutting red tape, improving SME access, and strengthening sustainability and resilience.
Several sector-specific EU laws added procurement obligations, including:
The Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation, mandating green criteria
The Foreign Subsidies Regulation, used for the first time in 2025 in a Chinese bidder case in Lisbon
The Net-Zero Industry Act, linking procurement to clean-tech investments
The Commission also introduced eForms and continued pushing digital procurement standards and open data across member states.
Digitalisation and AI
Governments and businesses across Europe accelerated adoption of AI-powered procurement tools. In Ireland, the OGP’s roadmap prioritised end-to-end integration, user-friendly platforms, and data-driven decision-making. Across the EU, spend analytics, automated sourcing, and risk monitoring tools became mainstream. The challenge remains workforce skills: many public bodies lack in-house digital capacity.
Green and Social Procurement
Sustainability became non-negotiable. In the EU, new rules embedded climate and circular economy goals in tenders. GPP is increasingly seen as essential to meeting Green Deal targets. Procurement also promoted social objectives, encouraging contracts with social enterprises and prioritising accessibility and inclusion.
Tools like the CO₂ Performance Ladder (used by Ireland’s Transport Infrastructure agency) gained traction, rewarding suppliers for managing emissions. The trend: procurement is being used as a lever for long-term environmental and social outcomes, not just cost.
Challenges in 2025
Procurement professionals faced three major pressures:
Digital transition, adapting to new tools while maintaining fairness, transparency, and value.
Inflation & cost control, especially in construction, energy, and transport.
Regulatory overload, keeping up with ESG reporting, green mandates, and geopolitical compliance.
USA and Canada: Economic Nationalism and Modernisation
In the US, Buy American rules tightened: federal projects now require 65% domestic content, moving toward 75% by 2029. Proposed climate disclosure rules were withdrawn in 2025, but federal agencies continued sustainability efforts through EV purchases and “Buy Clean” programmes.
Canada responded with its own Buy Canadian policy in December 2025, mandating domestic sourcing on federal contracts over $25 million. It also introduced a reciprocity rule, excluding suppliers from countries that restrict Canadian access, a direct answer to US protectionism. These moves reflect a shift toward economic nationalism in North American public procurement.
2025 confirmed that procurement is strategic, political, and central to climate, innovation, and economic policy. Ireland and the EU made decisive moves toward smarter, greener, more collaborative purchasing. The USA and Canada followed their own paths, emphasising domestic industry protection. The year laid the foundation for an even more transformative 2026.
Sources:
Reduction in price variation clause threshold https://cwmf.gov.ie/en/news/pv-clause-reduction
“The Public Procurement Gazette” Newsletter Issues https://ec.europa.eu/newsroom/growth/newsletter-archives/view/service/2738
Commission seeks views on the revision of the Public Procurement Directives
EY Global CPO Survey 2025 https://www.ey.com/content/dam/ey-unified-site/ey-com/en-gl/services/consulting/documents/ey-gl-cpo-survey-2025-outlook-report-02-2025.pdf
