Ann Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Labour) | Oireachtas source

My Department manages the seniors alert scheme, SAS, which encourages community support for vulnerable older people in our communities by providing grant assistance towards the purchase and installation of personal monitored alarms to enable older persons over the age of 65 and of limited means to continue to live securely in their homes with confidence, independence and peace of mind. The scheme is administered by local community and voluntary groups with the support of my Department. The maximum grant per beneficiary for equipment is €250 in respect of monitored personal alarms with pendant and €50 in respect of an additional pendant or re-installation. The annual monitoring costs, generally between €60 and €80, are borne by the beneficiary.

I am glad to say that from 2010 to the end of 2014, in excess of 41,000 people have benefited from the scheme at a total cost of €11 million. I have maintained the allocation for the seniors alert scheme in 2015 at €2.35 million, and that level of funding is sufficient to meet current demand levels for this important scheme. It is not a cost-cutting exercise.

Following the review of the old community support for older people scheme, CSOP, the forerunner for the seniors alert scheme, one of the key recommendations was that a centralised procurement process would simplify the scheme. By decreasing the level of administration for groups, this would allow them to spend more time on the key aim of the scheme, which is more and better interaction with older persons and would also achieve value for money through economies of scale. The Department undertook to consider new approaches to the seniors alert scheme in 2014 and arising from this it was decided that the scheme would be managed by Pobal.

Pobal's management and administrative services for the scheme included an invitation to tender for the supply and installation of personal monitored alarms, which was publicly advertised on eTenders on 20 October 2014. A panel of regional suppliers will be contracted to provide the equipment within specified regional areas while maintaining the benefits of local service provision. The tender process, which is being led by Pobal, is almost complete. As the market for the equipment is well established, it was neither necessary nor appropriate to engage in consultations with the market on the matter prior to the tender process.

Following discussion and advice from procurement consultants and input from my Department, it was agreed that the procurement would be split in two parts. The first part is equipment procurement. A three-year framework agreement for the direct procurement of the SAS equipment, that is the alarm units, was published in October 2014. A series of minimum quality standards, based on research from the National Standards Authority of Ireland, NSAI, private security agency and various agencies in both the UK and Ireland, were set as part of this tender. The tender was broken down into ten regional lots to ensure that SMEs were not disadvantaged due to excessively large sizes. This is pursuant to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform Circular 10/14. There will be a panel of suppliers chosen in each regional lot. These suppliers will be ranked and the first supplier will be the supplier of choice for all local organisations in the lot unless they cannot meet the demand, whereby the next ranked supplier will then be chosen to supply the equipment. These rankings will be reviewed annually and poor performance can result in demotion in the panel. The choice of suppliers will be managed by Pobal to meet public procurement rules.

The second part of procurement is monitoring services. A voluntary monitoring services advisory panel was published via eTenders in October 2014. The purpose of this panel is to inform the beneficiaries of the level of costs and service associated with various suppliers' monitoring services. Entrants to this panel will need to meet a series of minimum quality standards to ensure that the older person is getting a good quality of service. I must emphasise that the use of this panel is voluntary and the older person can choose to continue with their existing monitoring company or can choose any supplier to provide this service. Entrance to this panel is on a rolling basis over the course of 2015.

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