Ivor Callely (Dublin North Central, Fianna Fail)
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Question 145: To ask the Minister for Finance the procedures that have been put in place arising from the work of the inter-agency procurement group in his Department; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38956/06]

Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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An inter-agency procurement group, chaired by my Department, was established in late 2004 and began working in 2005 to determine how best to procure digital radio for the Irish public service, and most particularly the emergency and security services. The group spent the first part of 2005 considering a range of options, including the possibility of the public service building a digital radio network itself, or owning a digital radio network and getting a third-party company to operate and maintain it, or procuring digital radio as a service from a third-party with the expertise to build, operate and maintain it. The Group was particularly mindful of the complexities involved in a national provision of digital radio and the need to address a range of matters including security, national operation, high quality coverage, interoperability between public bodies, integration with existing environments, reasonable roll-out times, and affordability. Following extensive analysis of these options, the Group decided that the best value for money approach was to procure the provision of digital radio services from a third-party rather than a State-owned or managed infrastructure or a system based on any particular technology. The Group also decided that it should do this procurement on a public service wide basis because the aggregation of demand and requirements would provide far greater market influence than if individual public bodies were to seek to do this on their own.

The Group spent the second part of 2005 building its specification of requirements. The first phase of the procurement procedure was conducted between January and April 2006 from which five candidates were shortlisted and provided with the full tender documentation. Responses were received from four of these candidates and are being evaluated at present. The Group is availing of assistance from the National Development Finance Agency in the evaluation of the financial aspects of the bids. The Group has decided that, once the tender evaluation is completed, the preferred bidder will be required to undergo a "service performance evaluation" to ensure the appropriateness, performance and robustness of its proposal, before a contract can be awarded. It is estimated that such a performance evaluation could take approximately six months to complete.