The tender procedure for a national conference centre is being organised by Bord Fáilte under the direction of the independent management board for product development and is being conducted in full compliance with the EU Council Directive 93/37/EEC concerning the co-ordination of procedures for the award of public works contracts.
The full tender procedure notice was published in the Official Journal of the European Communities on 13 September 1997 and in the Irish media on 16 September. It invited applicants to submit requests to participate in the tender procedure by Monday, 20 October. Bord Fáilte received 12 responses within the deadline set for receipt of applications to tender. On 31 October 1997 invitation to tender documentation was dispatched by Bord Fáilte to seven qualified applicants, six of whom confirmed their intentions to submit full tenders before the deadline of 14 November. The closing deadline for receipt of tenders was 5 p.m. on Monday, 2 February.
Full tender submissions were received from five consortia and the Bord Fáilte led evaluation teams immediately commenced their assessment of these submissions. I understand that at the management board's meeting of 14 April 1998, the board considered these assessments and concluded that the tenders submitted were not such as to enable it to make a recommendation at that time.
The process has now proceeded to the negotiated procedure stage provided for in Article 7 of the directive, to be conducted by an independent team of technical experts. The intention was that these experts will report to the board and provide it with the necessary technical advice to make a recommendation. As the House will be aware, one of the tenderers has sought a judicial review of the decision to go to negotiated procedure and as this is now sub judice I cannot comment further on this aspect.
As to procedures, the tender process is being organised by Bord Fáilte and the independent management board. Under the terms of the tourism operational programme, the agreement of the Government and the EU Commission on foot of a cost-benefit analysis conducted in accordance with Community law will be required in respect of any final selection. The final date for taking account of expenditure for projects assisted under the Operational Programme for Tourism 1994-1999 is 31 December 2000, as defined by Article 5 of Commission Decision C(94) 1972 of 29 July 1994, subject to paragraph 4.6.7 of the Community Support Framework 1994-1999 which states:
.at the request of the Member State, duly made before expiry of time limits and supported by information establishing the justification for such a change, the Commission services may extend the time limits by not more than one year. If the extension requested is for more than one year a formal Commission decision is required. No expenditure incurred after the end date, as extended where appropriate, may be taken into consideration for the grant of assistance from the Structural Funds.