Joe McHugh (Donegal North East, Fine Gael)
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Question 113: To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he will describe and explain a process (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8311/11]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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The new system of tendering for FÁS courses will require registration on a Contracted Training Tender List (CTTL). All training providers, including those currently on the CTTL, who wish to register on the CTTL will have to meet the requirements of a new pre-qualification process which will be managed by the FÁS Procurement Department in conjunction with the FÁS Training, Policy & Development Services (TPDS) Division.

FÁS Procurement Department will shortly advertise on the Government e-tender website seeking expressions of interest from qualified training providers to form part of a panel. FÁS may add to this panel at regular intervals. This panel will form the basis of the CTTL. Providers may apply for multiple regions and several training domains. The outcome of the pre-qualification exercise will be a list of valid providers that are qualified to deliver training on behalf of FÁS by domain and region, for example forklift driving in Letterkenny, ECDL in Tralee. All successful applicants will receive a document detailing the rules which will be developed by the Training, Policy & Development Services (TPDS) Division. They will also be invited to attend a briefing session where operational procedures and other required information will be disseminated. All providers must agree to operate within these parameters before they are awarded any contract.

Every training course required by individual FÁS Regions will be procured by requesting tenders from randomly selected eligible suppliers on the CTTL panel. Tender returns will be scored using a MEAT (Most Economical Advantageous Tender) process. The highest scoring tenderer will be offered the contract where the conditions of the contract are met. All contractors on the list will receive an opportunity to tender before any contractor will be requested to tender a second time.