Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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Question 139: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the number of tenders sought by his Department from interested parties before a decision was made by it to locate a biological records facility in Waterford; and the cost of setting up this facility. [3708/05]

Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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The national biodiversity plan, published in April 2002, contained a commitment to put in place a national biological data management system to be co-ordinated by a national biological records centre. Subsequently, in December 2003, the Heritage Council, pursuant to sections 6 and 7 of the Heritage Act 1995, recommended to the then Minister the establishment, under the council's auspices, of a national biological records centre. In May 2004, the Minister responded, welcoming the council's initiative and requesting it to give more detailed consideration to issues such as funding, the composition of a management board and possible choices of location.

In June 2004, the Heritage Council recommended that the records centre be located in Waterford, under the aegis of the Heritage Council and in partnership with Waterford Institute of Technology. The council considered that its choice of location was supported by the emergence of an environmental node in the south east. This included the headquarters of the Environmental Protection Agency in Wexford, the Heritage Council's location in Kilkenny and my own Department's proposed decentralisation to four locations in the south east under the Government's decentralisation proposal. The capacity of Waterford Institute of Technology to bring state-of-the-art IT and administrative support as well as a strong environmental pedigree to a partnership were also cited by the council.

In response to this recommendation, my Department wrote to the Heritage Council on 15 July 2004 seeking further details on aspects of finance, governance, procurement and logistical matters. In September 2004, the then Minister, having received these details from the Heritage Council, accepted the council's recommendations regarding the proposed location of the records centre subject to an appropriate contract between the Heritage Council and the institute which specified the infrastructure and facilities which the institute would provide and relevant performance indicators for the delivery of the contract.

The Heritage Council, in its initial policy recommendation, estimated initial set up costs of a national biological records centre of €82,000 and annual running costs of €591,000. As yet no contract has been finalised between the Heritage Council and the Waterford Institute of Technology and no expenditure has been incurred on the project.