Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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139. To ask the Taoiseach the reason the Central Statistics Office has included a minimum turnover requirement of €1 million in respect of a request for tenders for the provision of the collection and archival storage of census 2011 forms in archival boxes published on 17 October 2014; if his attention has been drawn to the fact that such a stipulation excludes a number of indigenous businesses from competing for the contract; if the CSO will accept and consider submissions from indigenous companies whose turnover is less than €1 million; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44760/14]

Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael)
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The Central Statistics Office (CSO) published an open tender on 17 October 2014 on the eTenders website. The tender relates to the archival storage of completed 2011 Census forms with a possible extension to cover the archival storage of 2016 Census forms up to the end of 2034. Under the National Archives Act, 1986, all census forms must be stored for a period of 100 years. Under the Statistics Act, 1993, Census of Population records are open to public inspection after 100 years. In order to be usable in 100 years, census records require storage to archival standards which must be maintained over the period.

The assessment of a tenderer’s financial and economic standing is a key part of any procurement process. Establishing the appropriate suitability criteria that are relevant and appropriate to a particular contract is, of course, a matter for the contracting authority concerned. This is because the contracting authority is in the best position to gauge the appropriate levels of financial capacity that are appropriate to the needs of that specific contract. Therefore, there are no centrally imposed requirements for a minimum turnover. Such requirements would logically be developed on a case by case basis with reference to the specific needs of the contract.

The Government recognises that the small and medium enterprise (SME) sector is very important to the economy and that public procurement can be a source of business for SMEs. In this regard, the Office of Government Procurement has issued public procurement guidelines to public bodies which are aimed at facilitating greater participation of SMEs in public procurement opportunities. In relation to suitability criteria, the guidelines stress that public bodies must ensure that any criteria/turnover levels set by them must be both justifiable and proportionate to the needs of the contract.

In the case of the CSO tender, the qualification criteria in terms of a tenderer’s financial and economic standing was set at an annual average turnover of €1 million over the past 3 years. €1 million is in line with guidelines issued by the Chief Procurement Officer in April 2014 given the expected contract value and given that the tender is for the secure storage of confidential census forms (a valuable source for genealogical researchers) for a period of up to 20 years. Because this is a live tender it would not be in line with EU procurement law to comment further on the tender qualification criteria at this stage.