Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats)
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615. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the criteria used in the awarding of contracts to provide direct provision facilities; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37829/17]

David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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It is worth noting that the Direct Provision system is a whole of Government system which delivers a wide range of services to those seeking international protection in Ireland. These services include for example health services as provided by the HSE, education services as provided in primary and post-primary schools and, for adults, Education and Training Boards across the country.

Accommodation and related services (ie of management, catering, housekeeping, general maintenance and security services) are organised by the Department of Justice and Equality. The provision of these facilities and services for state owned accommodation centres was advertised by open tender in 2016. The tender sought the provision of these services at seven accommodation centres located in Tralee (two centres) & Killarney (two centres) in County Kerry, Cork City, Knockalisheen in County Clare and Athlone in County Westmeath. The tenders submitted were assessed on the Most Economically Advantageous Tender (MEAT) criteria, which enables the contracting authority to take account of criteria that reflect qualitative aspects of the tender submission as well as price when reaching an award decision.

The award criteria for the tender looked at the quality of the proposed services under headings of overall quality of service delivery plan, housekeeping, menu plans, security and supervision, maintenance (general and grounds keeping), additional facilities/activities, management and staffing and staff training in addition to the price. The overall marks were weighted with the price being 40% of the overall marks and the quality of the proposed services being 60% of the overall marks. Following this assessment, contracts for each of the state run centres were awarded in November 2016.

In relation to the twenty five commercially run centres, to date these contracts have been awarded following responses to calls for expressions of interest. From 2018, all contracts will be awarded through an open tendering competition to comply with EU Directive 24/2014 and will be conducted in accordance with the open procedure under the European Union (Award of Public Authority Contracts) Regulations 2016 (Statutory Instrument 284 of 2016). These tenders will also be assessed on the MEAT criteria. Service providers will be required to as part of the assessment process, include in their staffing proposal details of qualifications or experience in social care in order to assess their expertise in dealing with vulnerable and at risk persons. As with the state owned accommodation centres, tenders will be assessed on the quality of their service proposal as well as price. In addition, tenders will be designed to include recommendations from the Report of the Working Group on Improvements to the Protection Process including Direct Provision and other supports for Asylum Seekers. There will be a particular focus on the provision of facilities within accommodation centres to allow families to cook for themselves as well as improvements to quality of living space for families in centres.

It is, of course, open to any contractor or NGO (or groups of NGOs) to seek to engage in this procurement process to provide accommodation and related services to people seeking international protection. I would welcome the participation of groups or organisations who have expressed concerns about standards in Direct Provision in the upcoming procurement processes. In other EU Member States, reception centres are quite often managed by NGOs in partnership with the State. We have not, to date, received any expressions of interest by an NGO or NGO group to manage an accommodation centre in Ireland when expressions of interest have been sought.

It is the aim of this Department that the tendering for such facilities by way of open competition will ensure that quality accommodation centres can be procured while ensuring value for money for the Exchequer.