Tenders provide €9bn in new business opportunities in Ireland but not all tenders are awarded — costing Irish companies at least €300m a year.

The collection of the TV licence fee may be outsourced to a private company in a bid to stamp out widespread evasion that is costing RTÉ up to €40m in lost revenue each year.

The Government has launched a tender for millions of polling cards, as talk of a second general election has heightened.

A West of Ireland-based air service is challenging in the High Court the State’s decision to award the Aran Islands contract to a rival service.

SMEs need more encouragement to avail of the €12bn public procurement market, with only 14% of them bidding in public sector tenders in the past 12 months.

The Government is to insert "social" clauses into public contracts to ensure those awarded the work contribute to employment and training through measures such as recruiting workers from the long-term unemployed.

A group representing Irish businesses wants to see changes to the public procurement process to focus on the most advantageous tender price rather than price alone when selecting contractors

Legal and consultancy firms were the big winners in the €7.6m paid out last year by the Government’s two finance departments.

Kids are building their technology skills as schools sign up in their hundreds to a digital teaching programme.