Written answers

Wednesday, 25 October 2017

Department of Education and Skills

Schools Building Regulations

Photo of Richard Boyd BarrettRichard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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82. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of schools being audited or investigated for fire safety or building regulation breach issues; the number of these built by a company (details supplied); if a college (details supplied) built by the company is lying idle; if so, the reason; if he will provide all information possible within sub judice as to the nature of the legal action under way regarding the college; and if, in view of these issues, he is of the view that the company should receive public contracts in the future. [44820/17]

Photo of Richard BrutonRichard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy will be aware that my Department is committed to undertaking a complete audit of all school buildings constructed by the company to which he refers.

These audits are a proactive measure being taken, following on from consultation with stakeholders, to satisfy the Department that there are no further issues with school buildings constructed by that company. 

It is anticipated that it will take approximately 6 months to complete this number of audits. However, in each case, the Department will require an early report from the Fire Safety Consultants conducting the audit if any issue of significant concern is discovered.

Further to this and as previously announced, my Department is in the process of commissioning fire safety audits of a representative sample of up to 25 schools constructed over the last 20 years. It is important to note that the selection of a school to be included in the sample for this audit in no way means that the Department has concerns about that particular school. 

Regarding the timeline for this sample audit, it is expected to be concluded by January 2018. The tender for the appointment of fire safety consultants is nearing completion and following the issue of feedback letters to the successful and unsuccessful tenderers appointments will be made to commence the individual fire safety audits in November.

It is expected that the first set of Fire Safety Audit Reports will be provided to the Department by the end of December 2017.

The College to which the deputy refers is now the subject of Court proceedings initiated by the OPW.  In the circumstances, the Department is unable to comment on the project or the case other than to say that the building was closed in June 2014.

Regulation 57 of the EU Directive on Public Procurement sets out the circumstances in which a contracting authority may exclude a tenderer from participation in a procurement procedure. The Regulation sets quite a high bar in identifying the grounds under which a tenderer may be excluded. This includes 8(c) where the contracting authority can demonstrate, by appropriate means, that the tenderer is guilty of grave professional misconduct, which renders its integrity questionable; 8(g) where the tenderer has shown significant or persistent deficiencies in the performance of a substantive requirement under a prior public contract, which led to early termination of that prior contract, damages or other comparable sanctions.

Any such exclusion would be open to legal challenge by the excluded tenderer. 

It should also be noted that Regulation 57(20) specifies that the power to exclude a tenderer shall not be exercisable where 3 or more years have elapsed since the date that the tenderer was in the situation giving rise to the relevant discretionary exclusion ground

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