Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

My Department commenced the procurement process for a national postcode system in 2011. An open and competitive procurement process was conducted in accordance with Department of Finance and EU procurement frameworks. A pre-qualification questionnaire was issued on www.etenders.gov.ieon 17 January 2011. This invited interested parties to tender for the contract as a postcode management licence holder for a period of ten years to design, provide, disseminate and maintain a national postcode system. This procurement process followed the negotiated procedure under the relevant EU regulations. Given the technical complexity of the project, the Department ran the procurement following a competitive dialogue procedure provided for in the Public Supply and Works Directive.

There was an annual turnover threshold of €40 million applying to certain bidders for the postcode contract. The figure was arrived at by reference to the estimated cost of provision of the service in the initial stages of operation by the postcode management licence holder. The threshold set did not preclude Irish companies from participating in the procurement process. The tender documents permitted a partnership approach whereby entities could join together to submit a bid.

The inclusion of a turnover threshold is a standard feature of large-scale procurement tenders. As part of the tendering process it was important to ensure that the preferred bidder had the financial capacity to design successfully and implement the project. All entities that satisfied the tender requirements, either singly or as part of a consortium, were eligible to enter the process.

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