Written answers

Wednesday, 12 July 2017

Department of Finance

Help-To-Buy Scheme Assessment

Photo of Clare DalyClare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent)
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120. To ask the Minister for Finance further to Parliamentary Question No. 67 of 5 July 2017, the amount that will be paid to a company (details supplied) to produce the economic impact assessment of the help-to-buy scheme. [33126/17]

Photo of Clare DalyClare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent)
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121. To ask the Minister for Finance his views on the decision to award the contract for the economic impact assessment of the help to buy scheme to a company (details supplied) in view of the fact that housing is not listed as one of that company's areas of expertise in public policy. [33138/17]

Photo of Paschal DonohoePaschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 120 and 121 together.

My Department complies with all relevant public procurement legislation including EU regulations. The core principles of the EU procurement directives are transparency, equal treatment, open competition, and sound procedural management. They are designed to achieve a procurement market that is competitive, open, and well regulated.

A Request for Tenders (RFT) was issued on 23 February 2017. Three tenders were received by the Department on foot of the RFT. Applicants were required to meet the following criteria:

- Economic and financial standing; tenderers must be of good financial standing and demonstrate that they will be in a position to deliver a contract of this nature.

- Technical and professional ability including experience of the independent body/expert in analysing the residential property market in Ireland, experience of examining the economic effects of tax policy interventions and experience of conducting economic policy research with Government departments,

Indecon was awarded the contract for the review following the evaluation process undertaken by my officials and conducted in accordance with the relevant regulations.

The final amount payable by the Department of Finance upon the satisfactory completion of the review is dependent on allowable additional costs, if any, and so is not yet known. However, I can confirm to the Deputy that the base contract amount agreed by the Department and the contractor is consistent the Department's anticipated cost estimate, set out in paragraph 1.6 of the RFT (i.e. approximately €50,000 ex. VAT). The final amount paid to the contractor will be published in due course.  

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