· Bryan Collins · Guides · 8 min read
TED Europa Search: How Irish Suppliers Use Tenders Electronic Daily
TED (Tenders Electronic Daily) is the EU's official tender journal and the upstream source behind every Irish notice above EU threshold. This guide shows suppliers how to search it and how it relates to eTenders.
A TED Europa search queries Tenders Electronic Daily (TED), the EU’s official online journal for public procurement, at ted.europa.eu. It is the single place where every public contract above the EU thresholds, including the Irish ones, must be published. Search is free, and you can filter by CPV code, country, contract value, and procurement type.
For Irish suppliers, TED matters because it is the upstream source. Notices that appear on eTenders.gov.ie above EU threshold are simultaneously published to TED, and TED’s open data feed is what Tenderwatch reads to surface Irish opportunities here.
This guide explains what TED is, how to search it, and how it connects to the Irish system you already use.
What is TED (Tenders Electronic Daily)?
TED is the online version of the Supplement to the Official Journal of the European Union (OJ S), dedicated to European public procurement. It is operated by the Publications Office of the European Union.
Every contract notice above the EU advertising thresholds, anywhere in the EU, the EEA, and beyond, lands on TED. New issues publish on every EU working day, the issue numbering ran to S114/2026 by 16 June 2026.
TED is mandated by the EU Procurement Directives (2014/24/EU for the public sector, 2014/25/EU for utilities). In Ireland those directives are transposed by S.I. 284/2016 and S.I. 286/2016, which require contracting authorities to send notices to the Publications Office for OJ S publication once a contract exceeds threshold.
Since 2023, all notices use the eForms standard (Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/1780). eForms replaced the older standard forms and changed the field structure, which is why some third-party data, including Tenderwatch’s, occasionally shows gaps while the migration settles.
How does TED relate to eTenders.gov.ie?
eTenders.gov.ie is Ireland’s national procurement portal, operated by the Office of Government Procurement (OGP). TED is the EU-wide journal. They are not competitors, they are two layers of the same publication chain.
- Below EU threshold but above the national threshold (€50,000 services and supplies, €200,000 works): the notice appears on eTenders only.
- At or above EU threshold: the notice appears on eTenders and TED. The authority publishes through eTenders, which forwards the notice to the Publications Office for OJ S/TED publication.
In practice eTenders publishes first, and TED reflects the notice one to three days later. That lag matters if you rely solely on a TED Europa search for Irish work, you will see EU-threshold contracts but miss the smaller national-threshold opportunities that never reach TED.
For a full walkthrough of the national portal, see our eTenders.gov.ie complete guide and the broader government tenders Ireland guide.
EU thresholds: when a contract reaches TED
A contract only reaches TED when its estimated value (excluding VAT) meets the EU threshold for its type and buyer. The figures below are the 2026-2027 biennium, set by Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2025/2487.
| Contract type | Central government | Sub-central (local authorities, etc.) |
|---|---|---|
| Supplies | €140,000 | €216,000 |
| Services | €140,000 | €216,000 |
| Works | €5,404,000 | €5,404,000 |
| Social and other specific services | €750,000 | €750,000 |
| Utilities (supplies/services) | €432,000 | €432,000 |
Central government covers bodies like government departments and the OPW. Sub-central covers the 31 local authorities, the HSE, universities, and most state agencies. Verify the live figure on procurement.ie before pricing, the thresholds revise every two years.
If your typical contract sits below these figures, your search habit should centre on eTenders and Tenderwatch, not TED, because the work you want never enters the EU journal.
How to run a TED Europa search
The search interface at ted.europa.eu offers three modes: a simple keyword box, Advanced search, and Expert search. Advanced search is the right tool for most suppliers.
- Set place of performance to Ireland. Filter by country (IE) and, if useful, by NUTS region (for example IE05 Southern, IE06 Eastern and Midland) to narrow to your delivery area. Our NUTS code Ireland guide lists every Irish region code and the counties each one covers.
- Add your CPV codes. This is the single most reliable filter. Keyword searches miss notices that describe the same work in different words, CPV codes do not.
- Filter by notice type. Choose contract notices (live opportunities) rather than prior information notices or award notices, unless you are researching who won what.
- Set the value band if relevant. Useful for screening out contracts far above or below your capacity.
- Save the search and enable email alerts. A free TED account lets you save multiple search profiles and receive daily or weekly notifications.
The dependable lever is CPV. The table below lists the divisions Irish suppliers track most often.
| CPV division | Description | Typical Irish buyers |
|---|---|---|
| 45 | Construction work | Local authorities, OPW, TII |
| 50 | Repair and maintenance services | Facilities management across departments |
| 71 | Architectural and engineering services | OPW, local authorities, universities |
| 72 | IT services | Revenue, HSE, OGP frameworks |
| 79 | Business and management services | OGP professional-services frameworks |
| 80 | Education and training services | ETBs, universities, ESF programmes |
| 85 | Health and social work services | HSE, Tusla, section 39 bodies |
| 90 | Sewage, refuse, sanitation | Local authorities, Uisce Éireann |
CPV is mandated EU-wide by Regulation (EC) 2195/2002, so the same code means the same thing on TED, eTenders, and Tenderwatch. For the full breakdown of how the eight-digit hierarchy works, read our CPV codes explained guide.
Once you know your codes, you can skip the manual TED search entirely, our tender matcher maps your business to live Irish notices by sector and CPV, and the sign-up page puts matching deadlines in your inbox.
Where Tenderwatch fits
Tenderwatch reads the TED open data API directly, the same feed the official journal publishes, filtered to notices with a place of performance in Ireland. That is the authority behind the data on this site, it traces to the EU’s own source of record, not a re-scrape of another aggregator.
What TED gives you raw, Tenderwatch gives you structured. Each notice is classified by sector, tagged with plain-language summaries, and matched to the Irish buyer behind it. You also see what the TED interface buries, deadlines colour-coded by urgency and contract values banded for quick screening.
Two limitations carry over from the source, and we are upfront about them. TED times are often defaulted (only the date is reliable, many Irish tenders close at noon), and TED lags eTenders by one to three days. Always confirm a deadline on the official notice before you bid.
Browse what is live now on the construction, IT services, and healthcare category pages.
Practical tips for searching TED as an Irish supplier
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Lead with CPV, not keywords. Build a shortlist of three to six CPV codes that describe your work and use them as the spine of every saved search. Keyword-only searches on TED routinely miss notices that use synonyms or different phrasing.
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Search at division or group level when scouting. A two or three-digit CPV (45 for construction, 712 for engineering services) casts a wide net for market research. Drop to the full eight-digit code only once you know exactly what you want.
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Do not rely on TED alone for Irish work. Anything below the EU threshold, the majority of contracts for most SMEs, never reaches TED. Pair TED with eTenders and Tenderwatch so you see national-threshold opportunities too.
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Mind the one-to-three-day lag. Because TED is a secondary publication, a notice live on eTenders may not appear on TED for a few days. If you watch TED only, you lose lead time on the response window.
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Treat TED deadlines as provisional. Where a notice carries a date with no time, defaulting fills the gap, and many Irish tenders actually close at 12:00 noon. Always verify against the original notice before submitting.
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Use award notices for competitor intelligence. Filtering TED for Irish award notices shows who won, the value, and the buyer. It tells you which incumbents you are up against and how a given authority prices a contract type.
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Save separate profiles per product line. A free TED account supports multiple saved searches. Keep them narrow, one profile per CPV cluster, so alerts stay relevant rather than flooding your inbox.
Frequently asked questions
Is TED Europa search free to use? Yes. Browsing, searching, and saving search profiles on ted.europa.eu are all free. You need a free account only to save searches and receive email alerts, not to read notices.
What is the difference between TED and eTenders? eTenders.gov.ie is Ireland’s national portal, operated by the OGP. TED is the EU-wide journal operated by the Publications Office. Above EU threshold a notice appears on both, eTenders first, TED a day or three later. Below EU threshold it appears on eTenders only.
Do all Irish tenders appear on TED? No. Only contracts at or above the EU thresholds are published to TED. Most contracts for small and mid-sized suppliers fall below threshold and appear only on eTenders, which is why a TED-only search habit misses them.
How often is TED updated? TED publishes a new issue on every EU working day. By 16 June 2026 the running issue number had reached S114/2026, the numbering increments with each daily issue.
What is eForms on TED? eForms is the standardised electronic notice format introduced by Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/1780, mandatory across the EU since 2023. It changed the structure of every TED notice, which is why some downstream data shows occasional field gaps as the migration settles.
Can I just use Tenderwatch instead of TED? For Irish work, largely yes. Tenderwatch reads the same TED open data feed, filters it to Ireland, and structures it by sector and buyer. Use TED directly when you want pan-EU opportunities or the raw OJ S record.
Tools and further reading
- Tender matcher — map your business to live Irish notices by sector and CPV.
- Get deadline alerts — matching Irish tenders delivered to your inbox.
- CPV codes explained — how the EU classification system works.
- NUTS code Ireland — the regional codes that filter TED notices by place of performance.
- EU procurement directive — the law that mandates TED publication above threshold.
- eTenders.gov.ie complete guide — the Irish national portal in full.
- Government tenders Ireland — how Irish public procurement works end to end.
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