Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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202. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the number of companies that applied for the contract for the construction of Ireland House in Tokyo but were unsuccessful; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [47248/22]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Public procurement in my Department is governed by the comprehensive regulatory and policy frameworks at both EU and national level. The Department of Foreign Affairs applies the principle of competitive tendering in respect of its contracting for services, goods and works.

My Department operated a restricted two-stage tender process for the Tokyo works project where the Tender Notice was openly published in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) and also published in a prominent Japanese business newspaper. A Project Management firm, proficient in the Japanese construction market, was engaged as a technical advisor to assist the Department in procuring and managing the contract for the Tokyo construction development.

The initial requirement sought a response to a pre-qualification questionnaire (PQQ) from the open market regarding the financial and technical capacity and applying a set selection criteria. Following the evaluation of five applications, four Tenderers qualified under the pre-qualification questionnaire selection criteria and were invited to submit a full tender proposal to meet the works requirement. One of these did not avail of the invitation.

Following a comprehensive evaluation process of the remaining qualified Tenderers, the contract was awarded to the highest scoring Tenderer under the most economically advantageous tender method having regard to the contract award criteria set out in the Tender Notice.

The competitive tender used by my Department conformed with EU and National procurement procedures while applying Japanese tendering systems to meet the local market requirements. The tender method ensured that best value for money was achieved through open competitive procurement resulting with the engagement of a reputable professional works contractor.