New tool provides detailed cross-government payments data for public insight
Fianna Fáil TD, Albert Dolan today launched the Public Payments / Purchase Order Tracker, bringing together €78.5 billion in 400,000+ transactions reported by 190+ State entities.
The dataset shows who was paid, for what, and when. Information that, to our knowledge, no single department or agency currently aggregates across the system.
This is Phase 1 of a wider plan to make public procurement work better for people: transparent, trackable, and delivering value for every euro.
Albert Dolan TD said: “On the doors people ask, where does the money actually go? Budgets and tenders are the plan. The receipt is the truth. I’m a chartered accountant - so I did what accountants do, I read them. The FOI returns, the purchase order files, the circulars. We stitched them together so taxpayers can finally see the whole picture.”
He added: “We took scrutiny to the next level by writing to over 100 State entities, and many officials worked with us to make more data available. This was built alongside our civil and public servants by citizens, with the State, building on the work of Ireland’s FOI and open-data community, journalists, and public servants.”
“This isn’t about spending less; it’s about spending better. In 2024 alone, €14.6bn moved through these payments. If better information trims costs by just 1%, that’s ~€146m saved; even 0.1% is ~€14.6m.
“Money we can redirect into the services and infrastructure. Ireland needs to keep moving,” he concluded.
ENDS
Notes to Editors:
What’s being released:
● A consolidated dataset drawn from FOI-mandated reports and 2011 circulars.
● High-level insights: vendor activity, spend by entity, quarterly/annual trends.
● A concise methodology note setting out sources, cleaning steps, and limitations (naming inconsistencies, uneven publication).
Fast facts (2011–2025 YTD)
● €78.5bn, 400k+ transactions, 190+ entities.
● 2024: 71,332 payments totaling €14.6bn (peak year to date).
● 2025 YTD: 23,782 payments totaling €4.77bn.
● Claims are phrased as “to our knowledge” and “no department/agency currently aggregates” based on a review of publicly available sources.
● Proposed next steps (legislative phase): standardised, machine-readable reporting, unique supplier identifiers, and a live procurement ledger linking budgets, tenders, and payments. Albert will be bringing forward a private members bill in the coming weeks.
● The project credits cooperation from civil and public servants and builds on the work of Ireland’s FOI and open-data community and journalists.