asked the Minister for Local Government and Public Health if he will state the circumstances in which a tender other than the lowest was accepted for the erection of a district hospital and a fever hospital at Ballina.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Ballina Hospital Contract.
Tenders for the erection of a district hospital and a fever hospital at Ballina were received by the Mayo Board of Health and Public Assistance at a meeting on the 17th February. The lowest tender, that submitted by Messrs. Glynn and Tobin, Ballina, at £23,931 9s. 3d., was accepted. The firm, however, subsequently withdrew their tender for this and other institutions, and the board were directed to re-advertise the contracts. On the second occasion the tender of Messrs. Glynn and Tobin for the Ballina hospitals was £25,972 2s. 6d., an increase of £2,040 13s. 3d. on their original tender. The next lowest tender was £26,435 17s. Od. Having regard to the failure of Messrs. Glynn and Tobin to honourably complete their contract in accordance with their first tender and to the dislocation and delay occasioned by their action, sanction to the acceptance of their tender was withheld and the board were directed to accept the next lowest tender.
The action of this firm did not conform to the accepted standards of public tendering and any recognition of the practice which sanction of the tender would involve would create a most undesirable precedent.