Ireland has canceled the procurement for a €60 million ($65.64m) public sector cloud computing contract following a lack of applications, reports the Business Post.

The tender has been criticized by big tech companies that described the proposal as "unworkable."

The tender was released in September 2023 and was described as a competition to "establish a central procurement arrangement for ICT Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)." It was set to conclude in Q4 2023

Criticism notably came from Ibec industry group Technology Ireland which counts AWS, Microsoft, and Google among its members.

Technology Ireland identified "fundamental difficulties" with the proposal that would make it unfeasible. The group's director, Una Fitzpatrick, said: "The framework's potential risks to its viability and the resulting reputational impact on Ireland remains a serious concern. If this process proves unsuccessful and fails to secure the participation of the majority of . . . providers currently involved with public sector customers, Irish public sector bodies could be left without an efficient means to procure the services necessary to advance their respective digitalization ambitions."

John Garry, category manager at the Office of Government Procurement, said in a note to suppliers: “Regrettably, there were an insufficient number of compliant tenders received in response to the request for tender such as to allow for the establishment of a multi-supplier framework agreement."

In light of the cancellation, Technology Ireland said: “It is important that steps now be taken to ensure a procurement process for cloud services can be designed to meet Ireland’s digital ambitions.”

The Office of Government Procurement still lists a tender to"establish a Multi Supplier Framework Agreement for the provision of Public Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) Solutions" as open for applications.

DCD has contacted both Technology Ireland and the Office for Government Procurement for further information.