The ministers have made the announcements. Now somebody has to deliver them.
A Post Budget webinar with Associate Professor Paul Davis, DCU Business School
When: Thursday 22nd October | Time: 1.00pm | Where: Online | Duration: 1 hour
Join us for this complementary free DCU webinar on Thursday Oct 22nd after the Oct 6th Budget Announcement have been digested . The headlines will follow the money: how much, to whom, for what?
But a Budget allocates money. It doesn’t deliver anything.
Between a ministerial announcement and a citizen seeing a new school, a working water system or a completed housing scheme sits an enormous delivery system of business cases, specifications, tenders, contracts and suppliers. Public procurement is at the heart of it. It is where announced spending either becomes public value or quietly becomes something else.
In our previous webinar, We Procured It. But Did It Work?, we asked whether public contracts deliver the outcomes they promise. This session asks the question that comes before it: we’ve funded it, but can we actually procure and deliver it?
Presented as part of the launch of the new DCU Graduate Cert in Strategic Public Procurement, which is now open for applications and starts Jan 2027.
Why this matters now:
Government has explicitly tied Budget 2027 to infrastructure, competitiveness and better public services, with capital expenditure set to rise again within a National Development Plan worth over a quarter of a trillion euro. At the same time, the Central Bank is warning that pouring more money into a capacity constrained economy risks feeding inflation rather than output.
Money, in other words, may no longer be the binding constraint. Capacity, capability and the credibility of the procurement pipeline may be.
What we’ll explore:
In one focused hour, delivered within days of the Budget and using the actual allocations announced on the night, we will:
- Follow the money past the headlines to the areas that will generate real procurement activity, from housing, water and energy to health, digital and defence.
- Confront the capacity problem. Government can increase budgets faster than the market can increase contractors, engineers and specialists. More money chasing the same capacity can simply mean higher prices.
- Read the Budget as a market signal. Suppliers invest when they can see a credible pipeline. Publishing one may be among the most powerful economic interventions the State can make.
- Ask whether we’ll procure faster or just spend faster. If money isn’t the only constraint, what is? Planning, business cases, specifications, risk allocation, contracting models or decision making itself?
- Examine the SME paradox. As programmes grow, frameworks and lots grow with them, and the supplier market can quietly concentrate.
- Face the danger of December. When allocations become spending targets, “we have to get this spent” can turn procurement from a value creation mechanism into an obstacle to be cleared.
What you will leave with:
- You’ll leave with five practical questions to put to any Budget 2027 programme, in your own organisation or across government.
Who This Webinar Is For:
This is essential viewing for public and private sector decision makers whose organisations face market volatility:
- The session is designed for senior public servants, procurement and commercial leads, programme and project directors, finance and policy officials, and suppliers and industry representatives who will be bidding for the work the Budget creates.
About the Speaker:
Dr. Paul Davis is Associate Professor of Procurement and Supply Chain Management at DCU Business School, where he chairs the MSc in Business Management and the MSc in Strategic Management. A past President of the Irish Institute of Purchasing and Materials Management, he holds board level roles with the International Federation of Purchasing and Supply Management and sits on the European Commission Expert Group on AI Contracting. With over twenty years’ combined industry and academic experience, his work bridges rigorous research and the practical realities of delivering public value.
The Budget tells us what Ireland intends to spend.
Procurement will help determine what Ireland actually gets.
Register now for free to secure your place and take the first step towards your executive leadership journey.
REGISTER NOWPresented as part of the launch of the new DCU Graduate Cert in Strategic Public Procurement, which is now open for applications and starts Jan 2027.
Download the Brochure for the new course HERE
