Facilities and Cleaning Government Tenders in Ireland

Output specifications, staff transfer and why labour cost is mostly fixed

Cleaning contracts are written one of two ways and the difference changes everything a bidder does. An input specification states how many hours are worked, where and when, and the supplier is paid to provide them. An output specification states the standard a space must reach and leaves the method to the supplier, with inspection against the standard deciding payment. Buyers have moved toward output specifications, which rewards bidders who can demonstrate a credible staffing model and punishes those who simply quote fewer hours to win.

Labour is the overwhelming majority of the cost and much of it is not within the bidder's control. Where an incumbent workforce exists, employment protection commonly transfers the existing staff on their existing terms, so the bid is built on a payroll the bidder inherits rather than designs. Applicable wage floors, and increasingly a contractual commitment to a voluntary living wage, set the rest. The realistic levers are productivity, supervision ratios, equipment and materials -- which is why method statements and proposed cleaning schedules are scored seriously rather than filed.

Several requirements sit outside cleaning itself. Staff working in schools, healthcare and secure sites require background checks and sometimes clearance before they attend. Materials must be accompanied by safety data sheets and used under a documented control regime, with environmental criteria on products and packaging now frequently scored. Specialist frequencies -- periodic deep cleans, window and high-level work, carpet and floor treatment, washroom consumables and waste -- are priced separately from the daily service, and a bid that folds them into an hourly rate is usually not comparing like with like.

This section describes how this category is bought generally, across the public buyers that publish it. The figures elsewhere on this page are measured for this market alone.

Who buys facilities and cleaning in Ireland?

GlobalGov holds 44 facilities and cleaning records from 35 distinct buying organisations in Ireland. The most frequent publishers are Department of Foreign Affairs/An Roinn Gnóthaí Eachtracha (3 records); Bus Eireann/Irish Bus (2 records); Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (2 records); Iarnród Eireann-Irish Rail (2 records); Bord Bia (Irish Food Board) (1 record); Brothers of Charity Services Ireland (1 record). Between them the 6 largest account for 25% of everything published, so buying here is spread across many separate authorities.

What are facilities and cleaning contracts worth in Ireland?

33 of the 44 records publish a contract value. The median is $810,000 and the largest single published value is $91.8M. By size, 2 under $100k, 19 between $100k and $1M, 8 between $1M and $10M, 4 above $10M. The remaining 11 publish no value at all, so every figure here describes the priced subset only, and values are as stated by the buyer rather than as finally awarded.

How long do bidders get to respond to facilities and cleaning tenders in Ireland?

Across the 25 Ireland facilities and cleaning notices that publish both a publication date and a closing date, the median response window is 35 days. A quarter of them allowed 32 days or fewer and a quarter stayed open for more than 39. Not one of them closed within a fortnight of being published, so the window on this market is consistently workable.

How often are facilities and cleaning tenders published in Ireland?

Ireland published 12 notices in this category in the last twelve months. Volume is steady against the 12 published in the twelve months before that. Over the last three years there were 33, spread across 28 separate months of activity since 22 June 2021. January is historically the busiest month. No new notice has been published in this category since 26 May 2026, 128 days ago, so treat the figures above as a record of the market rather than as this week's pipeline.

How does Ireland compare with other facilities and cleaning markets?

Among the 37 countries where GlobalGov holds a comparable facilities and cleaning market, Ireland ranks 34th by number of records. The largest is France (3,120 records against 44 here). Within Ireland itself, facilities and cleaning is the 56th largest of the 63 procurement categories tracked here.

Where do the Ireland facilities and cleaning records on this page come from?

These 44 records are collected from 1 official source: TED (44). GlobalGov is an independent aggregator and is not affiliated with any of them; each record links back to the notice on its issuing portal. The set is rebuilt nightly, and the counts on this page were taken on 2026-10-01.

Most recent Facilities and Cleaning tenders in Ireland

None of these are open for bids now — they are the most recent records GlobalGov holds for this market, kept here so the shape of a typical facilities and cleaning notice in Ireland is visible. Set an alert to be told when the next one opens.

Other procurement categories in Ireland

Facilities and Cleaning procurement in other markets