Councillors call on Dublin City Council to adopt ethical procurement policy

Dublin City should adopt a human rights-based ethical procurement policy, councillors agreed on Monday evening.

The decision was reached during Dublin City Council’s September monthly meeting after it was proposed as a motion by Sinn Féin Councillor Kourtney Kenny.

The purpose of the initiative is to ensure that no councils are investing in or working with businesses or companies who practise or are complicit in human rights abuses, Kenny said at the first meeting back after the summer recess.

Adopting this policy would enable the council to exclude businesses not adhering to those principles, she said. “The councils will not be rendering financial aid or assistance to tender bidders who are complicit, once again, in human rights abuses.”

This policy would be implemented in accordance with United Nations guiding principles on businesses and human rights, she said.

The council wouldn’t be determining human rights violators, but instead making sure that, during the tendering process, bidders are checked in accordance with guiding principles, she said.

It would also be important that the council seeks legal guidance as they develop this policy, she said.

A similar ethical procurement policy was agreed to by councillors in Fingal back in February.

County councils including Meath, Monaghan, South Dublin, Clare, Kildare, Kilkenny, Wicklow, Louth, Cavan, Tipperary and Limerick have also adopted this motion, Kenny said on Monday.

All procurement in local authorities is subject to compliance with national and  European Union, as well as public procurement guidelines, council chief executive Richard Shakespeare said.

Kenny’s motion didn’t identify any current gaps in this framework, he said. “But in the event that the motion is passed, it will be forwarded to the Department of Public Expenditure requesting that they review current legislative and guideline frameworks.”

If a gap was found the necessary changes would be made where practical, he said.

The council had previously discussed this issue of being forced to engage with procurement processes that didn’t meet the council’s values, said Social Democrats Councillor Cat O’Driscoll.

There were HP laptops in the council chamber during their previous term, she said. “We know that boycotts do work.”

The Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee (BNC) has called for a boycott of the HP-branded corporations, HP Inc. and Hewlett Packard Enterprises, as well as its subsidiaries.

In 2018 Dublin City’s councillors voted in favour of a motion asking for their council to stop buying HP-branded products.

But, the then chief executive, Owen Keegan said, at the time, that to implement a procurement boycott would breach national and EU procurement frameworks.

Councillors in Fingal adopted a similar motion in July 2024. But they were told the council could not specify that products from particular companies were excluded from the tendering process without risking financial penalties.

Sinn Féin Councillor Daithí Doolan said the motion wasn’t about exclusion or boycotting. “This is about saying yes, about operating a rights-based ethical procurement policy.”

The legal opinion given to Sinn Féin, which has led the call for this policy across local authorities, is that this wouldn’t breach any current EU guidelines, he said. “In fact, it’s working within them and ensuring that we will give contracts to companies that are fully compliant with human rights obligations.”

Kenny’s motion was timely, given reports that day that the Central Bank will no longer be facilitating the sale of Israeli war bonds, said independent Councillor Mannix Flynn. 

The councillors present agreed the motion.