Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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My Department has a large pipeline of projects for delivery under the school building programme. The main elements of this pipeline currently involve in excess of 1,300 school building projects for delivery under the Department’s Large Scale and Additional Accommodation Scheme. These projects are currently in progress across the various stages of planning, design, tender and construction. There are currently in excess of 250 school building projects at construction (on site) with a continuous stream of other projects at or near the tendering stage. Most of which are expected to be either under construction or completed in the period up to 2025.

My Department is aware of the prevailing challenges presented by Covid-19, the fall-out from the war in Ukraine and the challenging market conditions, and is working proactively to ensure that all school building contracts are awarded as expeditiously as possible, while working within the parameters set by the Office of Government Procurement (OGP) and principles of public procurement set out at both national and EU level.

My Department's Planning & Building Unit has a number of consultant and contractor frameworks in place that are used for call-off tenders in the appointment of construction teams to deliver on its capital works programme.  These frameworks are in respect of project managers, design consultants, Building Energy Rating assessors, a Design & Build Framework, a Regional Contractors Framework and a Modular Accommodation Framework. These are updated as their lifespan expires and are regularly reviewed with regard to capacity and fitness for purpose. In addition, one of my Department’s strategic partners, the National Development Finance Agency who deliver devolved school projects also have in place Project Management, Design and Contractor frameworks. My Department’s capital works programme and individual schemes such as the summer works, energy retrofit, maintenance and emergency works provides many procurement opportunities across the entire country for small, medium and large scale consultants and contractors to tender and work on school projects.  Our summer and emergency works schemes in particular by their smaller scale nature, facilitate flexible procurement often at a local level.

The Capital Works Management Framework is the structure that has been developed by the Office of Government Procurement (OGP) to deliver the Government’s objectives in relation to public sector construction procurement reform. It consists of a suite of best practice guidance, standard contracts and generic template documents. It is not unusual for a contractor to claim an increase in the contract sum during construction. These claims can be for a wide range of factors, including inflation. The OGP published details of the “Inflation/Supply Chain Delay Co-operation Framework Agreement” for the Public Works Contract as recently as last month. The publication follows the announcement on the 10 May 2022 of new measures for ex gratia payments to address the risk posed by exceptional inflation and supply chain disruption on projects being delivered under the Public Works Contract. The OGP subsequently published the workbooks to assist contracting authorities in calculating the Ex Gratia Payments. It is likely that following publication of the guidance, claims may be made by Contractors in line with the published guidance. My Department will assess claims received in line with the published guidance.