Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 28 February 2013

Public Accounts Committee

2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 6 - Financial Commitments under Public Private Partnerships
Chapter 18 - Salary Overpayments to Teachers
Vote 26 - Department of Education and Skills

1:30 pm

Mr. Kevin McCarthy:

We will have to revert to the Deputy about some of the detail around contract price. I am not sure that we have that information with us today. The issue of the contractor going into liquidation was obviously the main factor in occasioning the delay to the placement of the contract and will involve additional costs for us. It is an unfortunate feature of the volatility in the construction sector generally that where a tender process has been completed and a contractor has been appointed, we find ourselves in a difficulty in terms of delays being occasioned. With regard to the cost of tendering, the second preferred tenderer was awarded the contract once the initial contractor went into liquidation and, therefore, from that point of view, there was not an additional cost, as I understand it, in terms of the tender process itself. The main impact was in the delay in getting somebody on site to commence the construction work.

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