Colm Burke (Cork North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank all the departmental officials for the work they have been doing, especially in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic. It has been a challenging time.

Turning to deal with the schools building process and the process we have regarding schools building projects, and especially the tendering process, the whole context of the system has now changed. A tender could be submitted today and the price for that project could be completely different in six months’ time. Has there been an examination of the current tendering process? I raise this issue because I was involved with a school where the contract was offered to the lowest tenderer. There was, however, a substantial delay from when the tenders for that project were received to the time the offer was made. The tenderer could not then take the contract at the relevant price. The contractor offered to undertake the project for a slightly higher amount but that would still have been below the value of next lowest tender. The Department’s attitude was that it could not do that and that the price could not be adjusted once it had been submitted. It ended up that the contract in question went to the fifth tenderer. The other four companies that tendered said they could not undertake the project at the prices they had originally submitted. The whole project cost approximately €1 million more than envisaged, whereas if the Department had negotiated with the lowest tenderer, €750,000 would have been saved. Has a review of the tendering process been undertaken? What are the mechanisms for dealing with tendering now in view of the changing situation in this regard, with building costs increasing substantially in a short period?