Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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57. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if a company (details supplied) is eligible to engage in future State tenders for construction projects. [46075/18]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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Public Procurement is governed by EU and National rules. The aim of these rules is to promote an open, competitive and non-discriminatory public procurement regime which delivers transparency and value for money outcomes.

As Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform I have responsibility for the formulation of policy, dissemination of best practice and guidance in public procurement. I am not in a position to comment on whether or not a particular business is eligible to engage in future public contracts as it will depend on the circumstances of the business and the criteria that have been established for a particular procurement.

An applicant’s eligibility to participate in public procurement competitions must be determined in a manner that meets the principles of transparency, non-discrimination and mutual recognition. Criteria for qualitative selection are defined in the EU Procurement Directive and essentially break down into two categories; exclusion grounds and selection criteria.

Applicants may be excluded from a procurement where their particular circumstances meet the grounds for exclusion defined in the Directive. These break down to grounds that must be applied by the contracting authority which typically cover convictions for crimes such as money laundering, corruption, etc. They also include an applicant’s failure to meet its obligations with respect to tax and social welfare payments. There is a further range of grounds that a contracting authority may choose to apply covering such matters as insolvency, poor past performance, serious misrepresentation, etc.

Selection criteria are applied to determine an applicant’s financial and economic standing and their professional and technical capacity. All requirements should be relevant and proportionate to the specific contract. Those who do not meet the minimum standards set for the applied criteria may be excluded from further participation in a tender competition.

There is no provision in the Directive to exclude a business from all procurement procedures. The assessment as to whether a business is excluded or not is made on a case by case basis for each competition.

The management of the tendering process for a public contract including the application of certain exclusion grounds and selection criteria is a matter for each contracting authority. It is the responsibility of each contracting authority to ensure that tenderers comply with all the requirements of the process.

When evaluating responses to the eligibility criteria the contracting authority must consider the facts and must arrive at a decision based on evidence.