Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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Question 447: To ask the Minister for Health and Children if she will give details of the consultations she has had with the Health Service Executive with regard to legal services for which the HSE sought competitive tendering in 2010; the services of which she is aware in respect of which the HSE so tendered and the name of the solicitors firm that assisted the HSE in the preparation of any tendering documents in 2009 and 2010; and, in each case, the name of the solicitors firm that was successful in the tender process and the nature of the work to which the tender related. [1592/11]

Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Independent)
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The HSE has advised that on 13 November 2009 a contract notice was dispatched to the Official Journal of the European Union announcing the commencement of a procurement process for the delivery of a concessionary type model for legal services.

The HSE has further advised that the contracting model is two-tiered and will at the outset involve a total of 35 law firms, all of whom have been qualified by the HSE to deliver services through four geographical panels, each panel representing a HSE Administrative Area. The law firms on these panels (which have been called Member Firms) will be used to deliver advices and services in key legal areas such as Child Care, Environmental Health, Mental Health, Disability, etc. and these firms will be managed by a single law firm who will act as the service manager for the contract. In addition to acting as the service manager, this law firm will also be responsible for providing the HSE with all of its corporate legal advice.

The HSE has also advised that in order to give effect to the model, a three-stage procurement process was conducted. The general requirement to reduce legal costs has been the subject of agreement by the HSE with my Department and specific targets were included in the 2010 service plan. I was informed by the Secretary General, in October 2010, that the procurement process was under way and that it was hoped that the new arrangements would come into operation from 1 January 2011.

The Head of the Legal Division in my Department was also informed by her opposite number in the HSE that the tendering process was taking place. Following a detailed and comprehensive evaluation process, the firm of Arthur Cox was selected as the Preferred Bidder to act as the service management firm for the new contracting model. The Head of the Legal Division in my Department was informed that Arthur Cox had been chosen and that its name was going before the Board at a meeting to take place in December. Contractual negotiations are currently ongoing with this firm with a view to a contract commencing on 1 March 2011. To manage any risk associated with conflict of interest, a firm from outside of this jurisdiction was engaged to assist HSE in preparing contract documents. The firm engaged to assist in this regard is the firm of McGrigors LLP, whose head office is in Edinburgh, Scotland. Senior Counsel has also been retained on an as-required basis to advise the HSE.