Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick, Fine Gael)
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To ask the Minister for Education and Skills in view of recent developments at a school (details supplied) in County Limerick, if he will consider proposals that were made by this Deputy during the course of a topical issue debate on 27 November 2012 including a greater level of due diligence in advance of awarding school building contracts, a more enhanced role for local quantity surveyors who would be part of assessing the submitted tenders and their likelihood to be successfully delivered at what could be regarded as excessively low tenders, a system of certified retention where sub-contractors would have to certify that they have been paid up to date before the final amount of retention is paid by his Department, school or publicly funded body to the main contractor, the introduction of project specific bank accounts where only invoices related to the project can be paid from; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [54618/12]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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School building projects are tendered in line with public procurement procedures. There are two methods of tendering (the Restricted procedure and the Open procedure). In both procedures there are minimum standards for participation (including previous experience, turnover, insurances, capacity to obtain a bond etc). The minimum standards for participation are stated in the Contract notice/ eTenders advertisement.

For less complex projects of a small to medium scale, the open procedure is generally used and all contractors meeting the minimum standards are entitled to submit a tender (thus facilitating the inclusion of small to medium enterprises and those with no experience in educational projects). For larger or more complex projects, where it is considered that pre-qualification of contractors is warranted, the Restricted procedure is normally used. In the Restricted procedure, there is an intermediary qualification stage during which the numbers of applicants is reduced (or restricted) to a specified amount (normally 10). The criteria for suitability assessment, which are taken from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform's Capital Management Works Framework, include company turnover, insurances, capacity to obtain a bond, personnel for the project, previous experience, and Health and Safety competence. Guidance on this process and standard questionnaires used are available on my Department's website.

In any procurement process my Department adheres to the rules and guidelines set down by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the EU Commission in relation to public procurement. This includes the Department of Finance Circular 10/10, which aims to remove obstacles to SMEs in tendering for public sector contracts.

On the issue of the administration of construction contracts, the Deputy will be aware that the Construction Contracts Bill 2010 as currently drafted will address some of the issues he has raised. The main aim of this Bill is to address the issue of non-payment to construction sector contractors, subcontractors and subcontractors of subcontractors who have completed work to the required standard on construction projects. The Bill as currently drafted makes provision to address these issues by providing statutory arrangements for payments under construction contracts, including providing for interim payments, thus reducing a payee's exposure to non-payment, and by introducing a new mechanism for the swift resolution of payment disputes through a process of adjudication. The sponsoring Department of this Bill is the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform which is best placed to expand on the provisions of this Bill.