Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)
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To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government when the contracts/tenders for the installation of water meters will be advertised in the context of the establishment of Irish Water; if the contracts will be offered on a regional or county-by-county basis; the number of jobs that will be created in the installation process; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7033/13]

Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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The Government has decided that Irish Water, a new State-owned water company to be established as an independent subsidiary within the Bord Gáis Éireann Group, will be responsible for the domestic water metering programme and for the collection of water charges from households.

Bord Gáis Éireann/Irish Water will procure a number (up to 8) of regional management contractors (RMCs) who will be responsible for managing the installation of boundary boxes and water meters drawing on sub-contractor resources from the framework panel of sub-contractors. Invitations were published on the Government tenders website, e-tenders.ie, from November 2012 for the pre-qualification process for the RMCs and closed on 11 January 2013. It is expected that tenders will shortly be invited from the pre-qualified candidates and contracts will begin to be awarded from April.

The procurement process for the sub-contractor panel has been developed by my Department, in consultation with Bord Gáis Éireann, to ensure that SMEs have an opportunity to compete for contracts. The tender criteria have been developed to ensure that sub-contractors have the capacity to carry out the scale of work involved to the necessary high standard. The approach being taken for the sub-contractor panel is consistent with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform guidelines on facilitating SME participation in public procurement (that Department’s Circular 10/10 refers).

It is expected that the successful RMCs will be utilising the resources of the pre-qualified sub-contractors for the purpose of delivering the meter installation works.

As the procurement process is currently underway it would be inappropriate for me to comment further.