For an Irish business, the two essential places to look are TED (Tenders Electronic Daily) for EU-wide public procurement notices and eTenders for Irish public-sector opportunities. Register on eTenders to follow domestic notices and supplier opportunities, then use TED’s filters and alerts to find relevant competitions across the EU. Check the live notice and tender documents before deciding whether to bid: a search result alone does not establish eligibility or submission requirements.
Which portal should an Irish business use?
| Route | Best for | How to follow up |
|---|---|---|
| TED | EU-wide public procurement notices, including notices from EU institutions and other covered bodies. | Filter by CPV, buyer, location, procedure, value, notice type and deadline; save search profiles and set alerts. |
| eTenders | Irish public-sector notices and supplier access for Irish buyers. | Register your organisation, search categories and contracting authorities, and monitor notices and quote invitations. |
| European Commission tender and funding links and the EU Funding & Tenders portal | Commission department calls, EU institution opportunities and funding calls. | Check whether the listing is a procurement contract or a funding call before assessing it. |
TED says access is free of charge and makes the Official Journal S available electronically. TED reports approximately €815 billion of EU contracts published each year and more than 3,000 notices per working day; its cited overview does not date those figures, so they should be treated as undated context rather than 2026 statistics.
eTenders is Ireland’s national tendering website. The portal describes its purpose as connecting public-sector buyers with suppliers who want to sell to government. The Office of Government Procurement (OGP) says authorities can also use eTenders to approach registered suppliers for quotes below national advertising thresholds. That makes supplier registration useful even when a purchase does not appear as a full advertised competition.
Set up a repeatable search
- Define what you can deliver. List the products, services or works your business supplies, the locations it can serve, and any contract sizes it can realistically manage.
- Identify relevant CPV codes. Use the Common Procurement Vocabulary categories that match your work as search filters on TED. A sector or keyword search can help you discover likely codes, but review the resulting notices to confirm which codes buyers actually use for suitable work.
- Register your supplier organisation on eTenders. Review the portal’s current supplier guides, keep account details and relevant business classifications current, and monitor categories and quote invitations. Registration does not guarantee that a buyer will invite you or that you qualify for a contract.
- Create focused TED searches. Combine CPV or sector with buyer country or place of performance, contract type (supplies, services or works), notice type, buyer name or type, value, publication interval and deadline. TED supports full-text searching across notice fields and languages, but a keyword-only search can produce a broad, less manageable stream.
- Save searches and activate alerts. Signed-in TED users can save search profiles and receive email alerts or RSS feeds. Set profiles around distinct services or territories rather than relying on one general search.
- Search priority buyers by name. If a particular Irish public body matters to your business, search its contracting-authority name on eTenders as well as monitoring category results. Enterprise Ireland’s procurement instructions, for example, direct users to advanced search and the contracting-authority field to find “Enterprise Ireland”.
How to screen a tender before committing bid time
Treat a search match as a lead, not a decision. Open the current notice and its linked procurement documents, then assess the opportunity against the details that determine whether you can deliver and submit a compliant bid.
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- Buyer and geography: confirm who is buying and where the work must be performed. Do not assume that a buyer’s country is the same as the place of performance.
- Scope and CPV fit: compare the specification with your actual products or services; a matching keyword or code is not proof that the work is suitable.
- Contract type, value and lots: check whether the contract is for supplies, services or works, how its value is described, and whether it is divided into lots you could bid for separately.
- Dates and procedure: note publication and closing dates, the procedure, and any milestones or instructions in the documents. Use the live deadline, not an alert or search result viewed earlier.
- Language and eligibility: check the language of the competition and all selection criteria, required evidence, qualifications and other eligibility conditions.
- Submission channel: follow the precise submission method and document requirements in the notice and tender pack. A portal account or supplier registration is not a substitute for submitting a compliant bid by the stated deadline.
Irish and EU procurement thresholds for 2026
The OGP’s threshold table, updated 21 January 2026, gives the EU procurement thresholds applicable from 1 January 2026. The figures below exclude VAT. The applicable threshold depends on the buyer type, sector and contract category; use the live OGP threshold table and the tender notice rather than applying one figure to every competition.
| Contract category and buyer | EU threshold applicable from 1 January 2026 (excluding VAT) |
|---|---|
| Goods and services, central-government authorities | €140,000 |
| Goods and services, sub-central authorities | €216,000 |
| Goods and services, utilities | €432,000 |
| Specified social and other services | €750,000 |
| Works | €5,404,000 |
Ireland’s national eTenders advertising levels are lower for many contracts: €50,000 for goods and services and €200,000 for works, excluding VAT. The OGP says authorities can use eTenders to seek quotes from registered suppliers below those levels. Do not infer that every below-threshold purchase must be published as an advertised competition; monitor eTenders and keep supplier details current as well as searching TED.
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Separate procurement contracts from funding calls
EU institution tenders and funding calls have their own entry points through the European Commission’s tender and funding links and the Funding & Tenders portal. A grant or other funding call is not automatically a procurement contract: the purpose, eligibility rules, deliverables and payment arrangements may differ. Confirm the opportunity type before spending time on an application or bid.
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