eTenders

Access to the old eTenders website has now been extended into 2025. Public procurement buyers should act now to retain past competition records in advance of this deadline.

In 2023, Ireland’s national electronic tendering website, eTenders, switched to a different service provider and a new eTenders website was launched.

Public buyers and suppliers have since been able to access both the new and old eTenders websites. Following stakeholder engagement and consultation, access to the old eTenders website has been extended into 2025. This will support contracting authorities as they work to complete the archiving process. Public buyers now have until 31 January 2025 to close, archive and download their files on the old eTenders website. After 31 January 2025, all tenders will be automatically moved to an archive state. Public buyers will continue to have the option to download their archived files until 21 May 2025. For more details on specific milestones within that extension timeline, public buyer users should visit gov.ie/ogp

The OGP is encouraging anyone who used the old website to take action now to ensure that they retain the procurement competition files they require. This is particularly important for public buyers.

Maintaining procurement competition records

Each year, thousands of EU- and national-level competitions are posted on the eTenders website. Using the eTenders website allows public buyers to procure electronically in a way that is compliant with public procurement regulations.

Contracting authorities and public buyers have to comply with data protection, data retention and legal and policy requirements. They are tasked with maintaining appropriate records throughout the purchasing process and beyond.

While eTenders was never intended as a facility for long-term record keeping, over the years, many buyers have become accustomed to the convenience of using eTenders to store and access competition files.

With access to the old site ending soon, the OGP is asking public buyers to take three key steps to save their past competition files before the January 2025 deadline so that they can continue to meet their record keeping and data retention obligations.

Key steps to retrieving data from eTenders

1. Close: Close any procurement competition on the old site that you want to retrieve data for.

2. Archive: Move closed competitions to the Archive area on the old eTenders site.

3. Download: Once a procurement competition has been closed and moved to the Archive area, download the archive file to your designated local storage location.

After 31 January 2025, all tenders will be automatically moved to an archive state and public buyers will continue to have the option to download their archived files until 21 May 2025.

A detailed guide with further information on how to close, archive and download procurement competition files from the old eTenders website is available, visit gov.ie/ogp

The Office of Government Procurement

eTenders is managed by the Office of Government Procurement (OGP). The OGP is the national authority for public procurement and is responsible for driving the public procurement reform programme in Ireland. The OGP is a division of the Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform.

For further information:
W: www.etenders.gov.ie
www.gov.ie/ogp