John Cregan (Limerick West, Fianna Fail)
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Question 171: To ask the Minister for Finance the necessary criteria for building contractors to be given the opportunity to submit tenders for public contracts. [11508/10]

Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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Under EU and national procurement rules, the open and restricted procedures are the two most commonly used procurement procedures, which between them account for nearly all public works procurement opportunities. In an open procedure, an invitation to tender is published concurrently with the advertisement/contract notice. Participation in the tender competition is open to any contractor. For contractors to avail of the opportunity to tender for a public works project under a restricted procedure, they must meet a certain set of minimum standards relating to criteria in a suitability questionnaire that has issued from the relevant contracting authority.

The questionnaire should include criteria which allow contractors to provide relevant information about their businesses. Those responses that meet the standards set out in the questionnaire can subsequently be invited to participate in a tender competition. In order to ensure that the criteria are consistent and relevant in particular cases, a standard template questionnaire (QW1) has been developed by the Government Construction Contracts Committee. This questionnaire is part of the Capital Works Management Framework which is published on my Department's construction procurement website www.constructionprocurement.gov.ie.

It should be noted that there are 17 criteria in the questionnaire which match those in EU Directive 2004/18/EC "on the coordination of procedures for the award of public works contracts, public supply contracts and public service contracts" and S.I. No. 329/2006 - "European Communities (Award of Public Authorities' Contracts) Regulations 2006". Also included in the questionnaire are seven sub-criteria relating to health and safety matters. All responses from contractors should be assessed against criteria that have been selected in a transparent way and that are fair, proportionate and non-discriminatory.