Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 14 July 2015
238. Deputy Catherine Murphy asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Social Protection the name of the company which was awarded the contract at tender stage to administer the water conservation grant; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [28972/15]
View answerThe Water Conservation Grant is being administered by the Department of Social Protection on behalf of the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government. The administration and payment of this grant is a significant project for the Department and requires the development and implementation of ICT systems, ICT infrastructure and various customer support and communications services. The procurement of services is essential to support the Department in providing a high quality service to the public in a cost effective and efficient manner and is governed by a comprehensive regulatory, legal and procedural framework.
Following a procurement process, a contract for the extension of payment functionality and development of a customer self-service web service for the Water Conservation Grant has been awarded to Bearing Point. It is intended that the ICT infrastructure put in place for this project will be reused for the provision of online services in the future.
A separate procurement has been held for the provision of customer support call centre services. Following evaluation of the tenders received a preferred bidder, Abtran, has been selected. It is expected that the contract for this service will be finalised shortly.
All costs in relation to the set-up and administration of the Water Conservation Grant will be recouped from the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government in line with existing procedures in this regard. Every effort is being made to maximise efficiencies and keep costs to the absolute minimum.
