Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)
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107. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills his policy in relation to the awarding of tenders for school construction projects; if there are any specific checks carried out to ensure that contractors awarded tenders have no outstanding disputes with subcontractors for previous works; if he will list all of the school building projects in which a contractor failed to complete the terms of the tender and had to be replaced in the past five years; if he will itemise the total cost to the State of same; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25046/13]

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.

A building project is a complex arrangement of contractual relationships between the client, the main contractor, specialist sub-contractors, domestic sub-contractors, suppliers of materials, suppliers of plant etc. In general all sub-contractors employed on education sector building projects are employed directly by the Main Contractor or indirectly by the Main Contractor through other sub-contractors. It is a matter for all sub-contractors to agree terms and conditions and a schedule of payments with the Main Contractor as their direct employer.

Details of the schools over the last four years that have had building contracts terminated prior to the school's completion was provided to the Deputy in a PQ answer on May 21st. For the Deputy's convenience I have attached this list and updated it to include details for the last five years as now requested.

There was a bond in place for each of the eleven projects. The bond is used to cover costs that would otherwise accrue to the Employer (i.e. the Department, School, VEC etc.) on foot of a contractor's failure to complete the works. As such the Employer's financial exposure is generally minimal. Negotiations are ongoing with regard to a number of these projects and in some cases the full cost of re-tendering and completion of the works is not yet known. The Deputy will appreciate that it is not possible to release commercially sensitive cost information which is currently the subject of negotiations. To do so would undermine the Department's position with regard to such negotiations.