David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The information on Corrib north and Corrib south states that the contractors have the requisite expertise and knowledge to carry out the urgent assessments required, and the contractor has specialist knowledge and an in-depth understanding of this complex project. That does not necessarily mean that there were no other possibilities. It is not an excuse for not having a tendering process.

The same applies to the contract to support the development of the national mitigation plan, NMP. The Department says the process was shelved because the supplier is considered unique because of the research it offered. Who considered the contractor unique? Again, I do not accept that as a reason not to have a tendering process. The same occurred with a NMP climate modelling contract worth more than €600,000. Again, there were no competitive bids. The Department's reason is that the contractor has a specialist team.

There is a wider implication here. Even if it was the case that these were unique specialist services, why is in-house expertise not being built up at the Department? It was the same with the national broadband plan. We have ended up with only one bidder because it seems that the only contractor left is the one that can do the job. We all know why that happened; because of privatisation. However I do not accept that for these contracts. An awful lot of contracts are being awarded without any competitive tension at all. We are given the excuse that the Department believes that the supplier is the only organisation or private company that can do the job. That does not cut it. I do not know if the Comptroller and Auditor General has examined the correspondence.