Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

This is one I have been waiting for us to receive. When we inquired into the issue, we got a note back with a little box ticked saying that they had gone through the procurement process. We asked what the procurement process was, specifically around some of the contracts. The largest one would have been for the fencing and security. Essentially, what they are saying is that confirmation of the Papal visit of 28 August was only received in June. That was the issue about the timeline to tender. They used existing frameworks for some of the procurement. My understanding is that they were on some preferred contractor list or something like that. Someone might correct me if I am wrong on that. That will happen. There was not a specific tender for this. However, going by the report that came back from the Department with the box ticked, one would have presumed there was a specific tender. This letter is saying that there was not but that, after discussions with other parties, having considered the issue, and as there was insufficient time and resources to run multiple tender competitions, the OPW had no alternative but to use the existing frameworks. Could we explain the existing frameworks? Does anybody know what they are?