Mr. Niall Egan:

We have sought extensive legal advice from the Chief State Solicitor's office on several occasions and it has also come through the Attorney General's office in more recent times. The legal advice is based on the EU Directive No. 2014/24 on procurement. It is clear that due to the employment service provision that exists in the market for the provision of employment services to the long-term unemployed, there is a mixed market in play. On foot of that, there is a requirement that all services, when they come up for renewal, have to be contracted in an open and competitive tendering process. We have looked at specific issues in the directive to see whether certain exemptions apply for services of general economic interest. The advice we have is they do not apply in the context of the services provided by the local employment services.

The Deputy raised phase 2 of the RFT and whether local service providers can get these contracts. When we go to a procurement, it has to be open and competitive. Any interested bodies in a position to bid have to be able to bid and to do so fairly. That is important from a procurement perspective. There has been extensive engagement with the sector over several years, going back to 2018. On that basis, we have visited every single provider and asked all the providers what unique services and offering they provide. We are aware of the important services the local employment services and jobs clubs provide. We are aware they provide great linkages into the existing communities and have a proven track record with those linkages. Therefore, we developed the tender under phase 1.

From the Department's perspective, we could have produced a simple tender, based on costs. We do not do that. It is a most economically advantageous tender process. Quality is very much weighted, with 75% of total marks going to quality. Of that, 23% goes to social value, proven track record on networking and building relationships and the important role of building services that wrap around the customer. Given the proven track record some of the providers have, they should be in a strong place to tender on those grounds.

In terms of meaningful dialogue, we have had extensive engagement with the sector. We had a meeting on 17 September. There have been four meetings between SIPTU and senior departmental officials, three of which predated the September meeting. Since 2018, we have had constant engagement with the Irish Local Development Network, which has been briefing its members on foot of the engagements we have had. In addition, we have also liaised and consulted with the non-affiliated ILDN members, such as the independent jobs clubs and the three local employment services not affiliated with the ILDN.