Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

This should simply never have happened. We have a company here which was involved in serious deficiencies in building schools where our children are educated. It went on to bid for and was awarded a contract to build a modular extension to University Hospital Limerick. The rules are very clear. I have read them aloud. The European Union (Award of Public Contracts) Regulation, which was transposed here, is clear that we can exclude a company where it has shown "significant or persistent deficiencies" in the performance of a substantive requirement under a prior public contract. A failure to understand a paragraph of the regulation is not an excuse for the Minister failing to implement this. The Government must deal with this promptly. The provisions are there to protect the public purse and to make sure that entities awarded contracts for capital projects can fulfil those contracts and that we learn from past experience.

My party has also tabled the Regulation of Tenderers Bill 2019, which would contribute to this end by excluding abnormally low tenders from the procurement process. This reform was introduced by our own party in the North and was updated in 2016. All of this is permissible under European law. As the Minister in charge of this area, will, the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, ensure that these provisions, which are allowed under European law, are introduced and robustly implemented?

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