Two-thirds of Irish people believe more account should be taken of issues such as pay, the use of local workers and the environment when public bodies are tendering for contracts, says a survey.
Of more than 1,000 Irish people polled for the research, which was carried out by French firm Opinea, 66.7 per cent said they would like to see a range of social factors taken into account when contracts for public procurement were awarded.
This response was slightly above the 65 per cent average across the six EU member states in which polling was conducted.
Just over 15 per cent said they thought the use of local workers should be the most important consideration, 4 per cent below the average, while 13.7 per cent said price should be the prime consideration.
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Spending by government and other public bodies on the purchase of goods and services covering everything from stationery and cleaning services to the construction of hospitals has been estimated be worth about €20bn a year. Unions have increasingly identified it as driving progress on employment rights and other social issues across the EU.
At the moment, public bodies offering contracts for goods or services are obliged to choose the most economically advantageous tender. Guidelines suggest this will primarily be assessed on the basis of price and quality.
There is, however, some scope to take environmental and other social factors into consideration and there are some provisions to encourage participation in the process by small and medium enterprises locally.
The unions want considerably more weight to be attached to these factors and say their research suggests they enjoy substantial public support on the issue with the numbers increasing.
The polling was carried out for international trade union body Uni Europa, which holds its conference later this month in Belfast.
In Ireland, the research suggests, the percentage of people who believe contracts should be awarded on the basis of social factors as well as price is up from 41 per cent in 2011 to 67 per cent last December when the latest polling was carried out.
When the results from France, Germany, Czechia, Spain and Poland are included, the overall average figure from the six countries has risen from 52 per cent to 65 per cent.
Wages and conditions provided to the workers employed by the contracting companies were identified as an important factor by almost half of respondents, while an entitlement to collective bargaining received 34 per cent support generally and 41 per cent in Ireland.
By comparison, 33 per cent across the six countries and 38 per cent in Ireland emphasised the particular importance of environmental considerations in the process.
“It is not acceptable for any government to spend €18bn of taxpayers' cash on goods and services in this State and attach no conditions on whether it is being spent on good employers and decent wages,” Siptu services division officer Adrian Kane said.
“We believe that the public procurement budget must be used to raise living standards and that starts with companies that benefit from the public pursue recognising unions for collective bargaining. No exceptions.”
