Selling into Ireland through distributors

How the market buys

Irish public purchasing is organised around central arrangements. The Office of Government Procurement (OGP), established in 2014 and part of the Department of Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, is a central purchasing body. Together with sector partners in health, local government, education and defence, it sources commonly used goods and services on behalf of the public service and puts in place the framework agreements and contracts through which public bodies buy.

eTenders, which the OGP manages, is the national tendering platform. It displays every Irish public sector opportunity advertised in the Official Journal of the EU, plus lower-value contracts that awarding authorities upload, and it carries tender notices, prior information notices and contract award notices.

For a manufacturer the practical consequence is that Irish buyers deal with suppliers who can invoice in euro, deliver across the country and support a framework for its full term. In our analysis of TED award notices for supplies (September 2026), 79% of the winners in the 1,250 notices from buyers in Ireland were companies registered in the country (96% across the 30 EU and EEA countries); those local winners include distributors and dealers as well as manufacturers' own local subsidiaries — see our methodology. Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom, with its own procurement rules and portals; treat it as a separate market.

Lawful first contact

Ireland is one of the countries where a first e-mail to a business is lawful, within limits set by Regulation 13 of the ePrivacy Regulations (S.I. No. 336 of 2011). Marketing e-mail to a natural person needs their prior consent. Two provisions open the business route:

• Regulation 13(4) prohibits marketing e-mail to a subscriber that is not a natural person — a company — only where that company has told the sender it does not consent.
• Regulation 13(2) takes outside the individual consent rule an e-mail sent to an address that reasonably appears to be used mainly for the recipient's commercial or official activity, provided the message relates solely to that activity.

Every marketing e-mail must also show who is sending it and give a valid address to which the recipient can send a request to stop (Regulation 13(12)). The opt-out is enforced: the Data Protection Commission prosecuted a supplier that kept e-mailing a business address after opt-out requests, and the company pleaded guilty to an offence under Regulation 13(4).

In practice, write to the distributor's general or sales address, or to a buyer's work address about the range they already sell. Say who you are, include a one-line opt-out, record every objection and honour it at once. If you write to a named person, the GDPR applies as well, including their right to object at any time to the use of their data for direct marketing.

What local distributors expect

Irish distributors work in English, so language is rarely the obstacle; preparation is. Before they take on a new manufacturer they will usually ask for:

• English documentation that supports a tender response: specifications, test reports, instructions, warranty terms and references, ideally from public buyers in your home market.
• Conformity evidence under EU rules — CE marking and declarations where the product is regulated.
• A clear commercial structure: margin, project pricing, territory, exclusivity, and whether the agreement covers Northern Ireland as well.
• Prices you can hold for the length of a multi-year framework, and lead times you can meet when a call-off arrives.
• A plan for stock, spare parts and returns, whether held in Ireland or shipped from elsewhere.

The relationship often starts with one range or one framework and widens once the distributor has seen the product win.

How to enter, step by step

1. Prepare an English tender file. Assemble specifications, test reports, instructions, warranty terms and references, ideally from public buyers in your home market, in a form a distributor can put into a tender response.
2. Assemble conformity evidence. Have CE marking and declarations ready where the product is regulated under EU rules.
3. Find who already wins your category. Start with the award notices above the EU thresholds on TED for your CPV codes; Cresques reads these and lists the winning companies. On eTenders, look at contract award notices, including those for lower-value contracts, and use its e-mail alerts for suppliers to follow new notices.
4. Map the frameworks. Public bodies buy through the framework agreements and contracts that the Office of Government Procurement and its sector partners in health, local government, education and defence put in place. Identify which framework covers your category and which distributors hold it.
5. Write the first e-mail lawfully. Write to the distributor's general or sales address, or to a buyer's work address about the range they already sell. Say who you are, give a valid opt-out address, record every objection and honour it at once; if you write to a named person, the GDPR applies as well.
6. Prepare the first meeting. Bring a clear structure for margin, project pricing, territory and exclusivity, and decide whether the agreement should cover Northern Ireland as well.
7. Show you can serve a framework. Bring prices you can hold for a multi-year framework, lead times you can meet when a call-off arrives, and a plan for stock, spare parts and returns.
8. Start with one range and follow up. Propose one range or one framework, and widen once the distributor has seen the product win.

Where the evidence comes from

Above the EU thresholds — EUR 140,000 for supplies and services bought by central government bodies and EUR 216,000 for other public authorities from 1 January 2026 — Irish buyers must publish contract award notices, and those notices appear on TED, the online supplement to the Official Journal of the EU. Each notice names the winning company and carries CPV codes, so the distributors that repeatedly win, for example, hospital consumables or school furniture contracts in Ireland can be identified from the public record. Award notices for lower-value contracts can also appear on eTenders.

Cresques reads the award notices for the CPV categories you choose and shows who already sells that category in Ireland. It does not help you bid for the contracts; the notices are evidence of who the buyers already trust, and the lawful first contact above is how you reach them.