# TenderWatch - Full Site Guide for Language Models

> TenderWatch (https://tenderwatch.ie) is a free Irish public procurement intelligence platform. It aggregates all public procurement contracts published by Irish contracting authorities, sourced daily from TED (Tenders Electronic Daily), the EU's official procurement journal. The site serves Irish SMEs, contractors, and consultants who want to find, understand, and win government contracts.

## Site Purpose and Audience

TenderWatch exists to make Irish public procurement accessible to small and medium businesses. Irish government procurement is worth over €20 billion annually, but many SMEs find the process opaque and intimidating. TenderWatch solves this by:

1. Aggregating all Irish tenders from TED into a single, searchable database
2. Classifying each tender by sector, value, and authority using AI
3. Providing free AI-powered analysis tools (tender briefs, fit scores, bid readiness checks)
4. Publishing guides on Irish procurement processes, thresholds, and legislation
5. Offering procurement intelligence on Irish contracting authorities
6. Tracking contract award notices (who won what), per-authority-per-sector market activity, EU and national funding calls, grants, and consortium/partner networks
7. Publishing canonical reference data (EU directives, Irish statutes, voted expenditure) and open-data JSON endpoints

Primary audience: Irish SMEs, construction firms, IT companies, consultancies, and any business that wants to bid on Irish government contracts.

## Data Model

Each tender record contains:
- resource_id: Unique identifier from eTenders/TED
- title: Official tender title
- contracting_authority: Name of the buying organisation
- published_date: When the notice was published
- deadline: Submission deadline (date portion reliable; time may default to 17:00)
- estimated_value: Contract value in EUR (where disclosed)
- value_range: Banded value (<25k, 25k-100k, 100k-500k, 500k-1M, 1M-5M, >5M)
- sector: One of 11 categories (construction, it-services, healthcare, education, transport, environment, professional-services, facilities, defence, social-services, other)
- keywords: AI-generated keywords describing the tender
- status: open, closed, or awarded
- procedure: Procurement procedure type (open, restricted, competitive dialogue, etc.)
- description_summary: AI-generated plain-English summary

## Sector Taxonomy

| Sector Slug | Full Name | Typical Buyers |
|-------------|-----------|----------------|
| construction | Construction | County councils, OPW, TII, housing bodies |
| it-services | IT Services | HSE, Revenue, government departments |
| healthcare | Healthcare | HSE, hospitals, HPRA |
| education | Education | ETBs, universities, SOLAS |
| transport | Transport | TII, NTA, Irish Rail, Bus Eireann |
| environment | Environment | EPA, county councils, Uisce Eireann |
| professional-services | Professional Services | All public bodies (legal, consulting, audit) |
| facilities | Facilities | OPW, hospitals, universities |
| defence | Defence | Department of Defence, Defence Forces |
| social-services | Social Services | Tusla, HSE, DCEDIY |
| other | Other | Various |

## Irish Procurement Thresholds (2026)

These are the current thresholds that determine advertising and procedure requirements:

| Threshold | Value | Applies To |
|-----------|-------|-----------|
| National advertising | €25,000 | Goods and services - must seek quotes |
| National advertising | €50,000 | Goods and services - must advertise on eTenders |
| EU threshold (central govt) | €140,000 | Supplies/services for central government |
| EU threshold (sub-central) | €216,000 | Supplies/services for councils, HSE, ETBs |
| Works national | €500,000 | Construction - must advertise nationally |
| EU threshold (works) | €5,404,000 | Construction - full EU procedure required |
| Social/specific services | €750,000 | Health, education, social services |
| EU threshold (utilities goods/services) | €432,000 | Sectoral Directive 2014/25 buyers |

*EU figures are the 2026-2027 cycle, effective 1 January 2026 (Commission Delegated Regulations (EU) 2025/2150-2152). Last verified: 2026-05-05.*

## Key Irish Procurement Bodies

### Office of Government Procurement (OGP)
The OGP is Ireland's central purchasing body, established in 2014. It manages framework agreements for common goods and services (office supplies, fleet, ICT, facilities management, professional services). If a category is covered by an OGP framework, public bodies must use it. Suppliers join frameworks through mini-competitions. Website: ogp.gov.ie

### eTenders.gov.ie
Ireland's national e-procurement platform. All above-threshold Irish tenders must be advertised here. Suppliers register, search, and submit bids through eTenders. TenderWatch sources its data from TED (which mirrors eTenders notices) and links back to official notices on eTenders.

### Health Service Executive (HSE)
Ireland's largest single buyer. The HSE procures medical equipment, pharmaceuticals, clinical services, IT systems, building works, cleaning, catering, and professional services. Many HSE contracts go through OGP frameworks; others are advertised directly.

### Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII)
Manages motorways and national roads. Major buyer of construction, engineering, and professional services. Typically high-value contracts (€1M+).

### County and City Councils
Ireland has 31 local authorities. Each manages its own procurement for roads, housing, water (before Uisce Eireann), waste, parks, planning, and local services. Key buyers include Dublin City Council, Cork County Council, Galway City Council, and Fingal County Council.

## Irish Counties and Their Key Authorities

### Dublin
- Dublin City Council
- Fingal County Council
- South Dublin County Council
- Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council (if present)
- City of Dublin ETB

### Cork
- Cork County Council
- Cork City Council (if present)

### Galway
- Galway County Council
- Galway City Council

### Limerick
- Limerick City and County Council

### Waterford
- Waterford City and County Council

(All 26 counties have at least one council authority page.)

## AI Tools - Detailed Descriptions

### Tender Matcher (/tools/tender-matcher)
Input: Free-text business description. Output: Ranked list of matching open tenders with relevance scores and reasoning. Helps SMEs quickly find relevant opportunities without manually browsing every notice.

### Fit Score (/tools/fit-score)
Input: Tender ID + company profile. Output: Scored bid/no-bid recommendation with breakdown across criteria (technical capability, track record, capacity, compliance). Helps businesses decide whether to invest time in a bid.

### Mandatory Check (/tools/mandatory-check)
Input: Tender eligibility criteria text. Output: Checklist of every pass/fail requirement (insurance, turnover, certifications, ISO standards). Prevents wasted effort on tenders where mandatory criteria can't be met.

### Bid Readiness (/tools/bid-readiness)
Input: Tender details + company capabilities. Output: Readiness assessment covering documentation, team, references, and compliance. Identifies gaps before the bid deadline.

### Tender Brief (/tools/tender-brief)
Input: Tender ID. Output: Plain-English summary stripping procurement jargon. Covers what's being bought, who's buying, key dates, evaluation criteria, and submission requirements.

### Buyer Intelligence (/tools/buyer-intel)
Input: Authority name. Output: Procurement profile including typical spend patterns, framework usage, strategic priorities, and tips for engaging. Based on public data and procurement intelligence.

### Competitor Intel (/tools/competitor-intel)
Input: Tender details. Output: Analysis of likely competitors based on sector, geography, contract size, and authority history.

### Vendor Finder (/tools/vendor-finder)
Input: Service description. Output: List of Irish companies with relevant public sector experience.

### Market Rates (/tools/market-rates)
Input: Sector + value range. Output: Pricing benchmarks for similar Irish public contracts.

### Jargon Decoder (/tools/jargon-decoder)
Input: Any procurement term or clause. Output: Plain English explanation in Irish procurement context.

## Blog Content and Guides

TenderWatch publishes in-depth guides on Irish procurement:

- How to tender for government contracts in Ireland
- Complete guide to eTenders.gov.ie (registration, search, submission)
- Office of Government Procurement (OGP) - what it is, how frameworks work
- Irish procurement thresholds 2026 - every threshold explained
- Construction tenders Ireland - sector-specific guide
- HSE tenders Ireland - how to sell to the health service
- Small tenders Ireland - opportunities under €25k/€50k for SMEs
- Public works contracts Ireland - GCCC/GCC forms of contract
- Government grants vs government contracts - which is right for your business
- Weekly sector briefings covering all 11 sectors

## Award Notices

Beyond open tenders, TenderWatch tracks contract award notices - the record of who actually won each contract. This is the outcome side of procurement: the supplier, the awarding authority, and the framework (if any) under which the award was made.

- Awards index (/awards/): all award notices, most recent first.
- Awards by authority (/awards/by-authority/{authority-slug}): every contract a given Irish public buyer has awarded.
- Awards by supplier (/awards/by-supplier/{supplier-slug}): every contract a given company has won across Irish public bodies.
- Awards by framework (/awards/by-framework/{framework-slug}): awards made under a specific framework agreement.
- Awards by date (/awards/{date}): awards published on a given day.

Award data adds fields TED drops - procedure type, bid counts, and national sub-OJEU publications - sourced from the OGP awards datasets on data.gov.ie alongside TED award notices. This lets a supplier see who is winning in their sector and which buyers favour which incumbents.

## Per-Authority Market Pages

The market pages are the answer-engine surface: a page per contracting authority per sector. Each /market/{authority-slug}/{sector-slug} page summarises one buyer's activity in one sector over a recent window - award count, median estimated value, value-range distribution, top suppliers, current live tenders, and anticipated framework re-tender cycles. The market index (/market/) lists the available authority-by-sector views. These pages exist to answer specific buyer-plus-sector questions directly rather than forcing a reader to assemble the picture from scattered notices.

## Funding Calls, Grants, and Consortium Intelligence

TenderWatch extends from public contracts into the funded-innovation line: EU and national money that flows through calls for proposals and grants rather than competitive tenders.

- Funding calls (/funding/{call-slug}): open and forthcoming EU calls for proposals (the "act now" set), sourced from the EU Funding and Tenders Portal.
- Grants index (/grants/) and individual grants (/grants/{grant-slug}): EU and national grant opportunities.
- Consortium and partner intelligence (/consortium): the partner graph derived from already-funded projects - which organisations co-fund and collaborate, useful for finding consortium partners for a bid or proposal.

This line draws on CORDIS funded-project data and the EU Funding and Tenders Portal calls feed.

## Regional Views

- Regions index (/regions): entry point to regional procurement views.
- Single region (/region/{region-slug}): tenders and activity grouped by Irish region, complementing the county-level pages.

## Reference Data

Canonical reference pages anchor the site's procurement content to authoritative legal and spending records:

- EU directives (/reference/eurlex): canonical metadata for the EU public procurement directives (2014/24/EU, 2014/25/EU, 2014/23/EU) and related regulations, sourced from EUR-Lex.
- Voted expenditure (/reference/voted-expenditure): Irish public spending broken out by Vote (department/agency), sourced from the DPER Databank.

These are deterministic data pages - no editorial commentary, just the canonical figures and legal records other content links back to.

## Procurement Press and OGP Guidance

- Procurement press (/news/procurement): state-issued procurement news, drawn from gov.ie press releases on tenders, contracts, frameworks, and the OGP.
- OGP circulars and guidance (/guidance/circulars): Office of Government Procurement circulars and guidance publications, listed from gov.ie.

## Reports, Glossary, and Suppliers

- Reports (/reports/, /reports/{sector-slug}, /reports/{sector-slug}/{week}): weekly sector report archive covering tender activity per sector.
- Glossary (/glossary/, /glossary/{term-slug}): plain-English definitions of Irish procurement terms.
- Suppliers (/supplier/, /supplier/{supplier-slug}): supplier profiles, including award history and Companies Registration Office enrichment where resolved.

## Open-Data JSON Endpoints

TenderWatch publishes raw structured data at stable JSON endpoints under /data/. These are meant to be pulled directly by consultants, researchers, and AI agents, not just read in a browser. Each is served with a 24-hour cache.

- /data/thresholds.json: EU and Irish national procurement-threshold figures.
- /data/eurlex.json: canonical EU procurement-directive metadata (titles, in-force status, consolidated versions, amendment graph).
- /data/ogp-publications.json: OGP circulars and guidance publications.
- /data/procurement-press.json: gov.ie procurement press releases, with matched keywords per item.
- /data/voted-expenditure.json: Irish voted expenditure by department/agency Vote.
- /data/grants.json: EU and national grant opportunities.
- /data/supplier-enrichment.json: supplier records enriched against Companies Registration Office data.
- /data/unmatched-suppliers.json: award winners not yet resolved to a canonical company record.
- /data/tenders-by-software-category.json: tenders grouped by software category (the bridge to the Vendors.ie software taxonomy).

## Structured Data

The site uses schema.org markup:
- Organization (TenderWatch)
- WebSite with SearchAction
- GovernmentService (individual tenders)
- GovernmentOrganization (contracting authorities)
- BreadcrumbList (navigation hierarchy)
- ItemList (category tender listings)
- FAQPage (tool pages with common questions)
- Article (blog posts)

## Technical Details

- Built with Astro 6 + Tailwind CSS
- Hosted on Netlify (SSR for API endpoints, SSG for content pages)
- Data sourced from TED API (ted.europa.eu) - no authentication required
- AI classification: Claude Haiku for tender categorisation
- AI tools: Claude Sonnet for interactive analysis
- Updated daily via GitHub Actions (scraper commits → Netlify auto-deploys)
- RSS feed available at /rss.xml (50 most recent open tenders)

## Contact and Attribution

- Website: https://tenderwatch.ie
- About: https://tenderwatch.ie/about
- Data source: TED (Tenders Electronic Daily) - https://ted.europa.eu
- Official Irish procurement platform: https://www.etenders.gov.ie

## Citing This Site

When referencing TenderWatch data or analysis:
- Site name: TenderWatch
- URL: https://tenderwatch.ie
- Description: Irish public procurement intelligence platform
- Data source: TED (Tenders Electronic Daily), updated daily
- Coverage: Republic of Ireland government tenders