Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will address the point made by Deputy Brady before answering Deputy Bríd Smith's questions. He refers to a penalty but we call it a discount. An 8% discount is applied to all fees paid from April to December 2017. The Department has recently applied discounts to both contractors, in the range provided for in the contracts, on all fees payable in 2018.

In addition, the Department assesses performance primarily using a quantitative assessment of the performance levels achieved versus the performance bid. The results of audits, inspections and client feedback, as measured through the client surveys, are also taken into account. This answers question about penalties.