Tender writing tips for Irish contractors

Short answer: most Irish contractors lose tenders on the written answers, not the price. A winning tender answers every question in the order it is asked, proves each claim with a named, similar project, writes a methodology for this job rather than a generic one, and is shaped by talking to the client before the tender is issued, through the routes the rules allow.

Public bodies in Ireland advertise their tenders on eTenders, the government's tendering platform. Under Office of Government Procurement guidance, works contracts with an estimated value of €200,000 or more (excluding VAT) should be advertised on eTenders as part of a formal tendering process, and goods and services contracts from €50,000 (excluding VAT) must be advertised there.

Larger contracts follow the EU procurement rules. From 1 January 2026 the EU threshold for works contracts is €5,404,000, net of VAT. Above that, the tender is also published across the EU and the full EU procedures apply.

Before you price any public job, check the basics. You need a Tax Clearance Certificate from Revenue if your payments from a public sector contract will be more than €10,000, VAT inclusive, in a year. Many contracting authorities also ask for insurance levels, safety certification and project references at the selection stage, before your price is even opened.

Read the client's strategy documents, recent tenders and published project pages. Use their words for their priorities. If a council talks about minimising disruption to residents, your methodology should open with how you will do that, in their language.

Answer every question in the order it is asked, and match the headings in the tender documents exactly. Evaluators work through a scoring sheet. If they cannot find your answer quickly, it scores lower.

Direct lobbying before or during a procurement process is rightly prohibited. But a lot of legitimate contact happens before a tender exists: pre-market consultations, requests for information, industry briefings and meet the buyer events. Contractors who take part understand the client's priorities before the documents are written.

On private work it goes further. Main contractors and private clients invite firms they already know to price. Being known by name to the right preconstruction and commercial people, months before the job, is often what gets you on the tender list in the first place. That is the part WDI helps with: see construction lead generation and our guide to becoming a preferred subcontractor.