Buying for education estates, and why term dates govern everything
Education procurement is scheduled around an academic calendar that cannot move. Building work, refurbishment, furniture replacement and systems migration are concentrated into vacation periods, which compresses programmes, creates a peak in demand that constrains supplier capacity, and makes liquidated damages for late completion unusually meaningful: a school that cannot open is a problem no amount of money solves. Bidders should treat the handover date in these contracts as genuinely fixed.
Safeguarding governs who may be on site and is checked rather than declared. Anyone working where children or young people are present normally requires a criminal record check at the appropriate level, identity verification and often supervision arrangements, and the supplier is responsible for maintaining the records. Site rules around segregation of works areas, escorted access, photography and the use of personal devices are contractual. These obligations apply to a plumber as much as to a teacher, and they are the most common cause of a supplier being turned away at the gate.
The buying structures are unusual in two respects. Purchasing consortia and central bodies aggregate demand across many institutions, so a single award can serve hundreds of sites with widely varying needs, and bidders must price a service across that spread rather than for a typical member. And in higher education, research infrastructure and teaching equipment are frequently funded by grants with their own eligibility rules, reporting requirements and spend deadlines, which constrains what can be bought, from whom and by when in ways that are not visible from the specification alone.
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 schools and universities in Ireland?
GlobalGov holds 96 schools and universities records from 52 distinct buying organisations in Ireland. The most frequent publishers are Education Procurement Service (EPS) (8 records); Atlantic Technological University (7 records); The High Court of Ireland (6 records); St. Clare’s Comprehensive School (Manorhamilton) (5 records); Trinity College Dublin the University of Dublin_336 (5 records); Pobalscoil Rosmini (Rosmini Community School) (4 records). Between them the 6 largest account for 36% of everything published, so buying here is spread across many separate authorities.
| Buying organisation | Records | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Education Procurement Service (EPS) | 8 | 8.3% |
| Atlantic Technological University | 7 | 7.3% |
| The High Court of Ireland | 6 | 6.2% |
| St. Clare’s Comprehensive School (Manorhamilton) | 5 | 5.2% |
| Trinity College Dublin the University of Dublin_336 | 5 | 5.2% |
| Pobalscoil Rosmini (Rosmini Community School) | 4 | 4.2% |
What are schools and universities contracts worth in Ireland?
87 of the 96 records publish a contract value. The median is $486,000 and the largest single published value is $20.5M. By size, 9 under $100k, 54 between $100k and $1M, 22 between $1M and $10M, 2 above $10M. The remaining 9 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.
| Contract size | Records | Share of priced |
|---|---|---|
| under $100k | 9 | 10% |
| between $100k and $1M | 54 | 62% |
| between $1M and $10M | 22 | 25% |
| above $10M | 2 | 2.3% |
How long do bidders get to respond to schools and universities tenders in Ireland?
Across the 81 Ireland schools and universities notices that publish both a publication date and a closing date, the median response window is 31 days. A quarter of them allowed 24 days or fewer and a quarter stayed open for more than 34. Short turnarounds are the exception rather than the rule here: only 3 (3.7%) closed within a fortnight of being published.
How often are schools and universities tenders published in Ireland?
Ireland publishes about 5 notices a month in this category, 55 in the last twelve months. That is 224% more than the 17 published in the twelve months before that. Over the last three years there were 93, spread across 26 separate months of activity since 16 March 2022. March 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 schools and universities markets?
Among the 28 countries where GlobalGov holds a comparable schools and universities market, Ireland ranks 15th by number of records. The largest is Kenya (9,671 records against 96 here). Within Ireland itself, schools and universities is the 42nd largest of the 63 procurement categories tracked here.
Where do the Ireland schools and universities records on this page come from?
These 96 records are collected from 1 official source: TED (96). 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.
Open Schools and Universities tenders in Ireland
Showing 1 of the 1 notices open in this category today. Openness uses the same definition as the Ireland market page: active, not marked awarded, cancelled, closed or expired, and either closing in the future or published within the last 90 days with no stated closing date.
Other procurement categories in Ireland
Building ConstructionManagement ConsultingSoftware DevelopmentRoad & InfrastructureArchitecture and EngineeringTraining & EducationCivil ConstructionMaintenance & RepairConsultingTransportationHospital ConstructionLegal ServicesVehicles and FleetResearch & DevelopmentTraining and Capacity BuildingVehicle MaintenanceMedical EquipmentFinancial ServicesIT ConsultingHealthcare ServicesEnergyWaste ManagementLaboratory EquipmentCatering ServicesCommunications PrIct EquipmentOffice FurnitureEnvironmental ServicesTelecommunicationsSurvey & MappingFinancial AdvisoryStaffing AugmentationBuilding MaterialsRoads and Highways InfrastructureIt Support & MaintenancePrinting PublishingSecurity ServicesScientific ResearchGround TransportWarehousingAgricultural EquipmentFood Aid and NutritionFreight and LogisticsRenovation RehabilitationSite PreparationEvent ManagementUniforms ClothingCybersecurityPharmaceuticalsAudit and AccountingMail CourierResearch and StudiesFuel SupplyCommunity DevelopmentFacilities and CleaningDatabase ManagementWeapons SystemsCloud ServicesAdult LiteracyOil Gas UpstreamMilitary LogisticsHelpdesk Support
Schools and Universities procurement in other markets
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