Ukraine War

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 10 May 2022

Tuesday, 10 May 2022

Ceisteanna (518)

Richard Boyd Barrett

Ceist:

518. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Minister for Education if she will provide details of contracts awarded in 2022 by her Department or bodies under her aegis outside the standard procurement process in order to assist the arrival of refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [23191/22]

Freagraí scríofa

Minister for Education

I wish to thank the Deputy for his question.

As a result of Ireland’s significant Ukrainian Humanitarian effort, an immediate need for significant development of the Department of Education’s Geographical Information System (GIS) was deemed necessary in order to determine and monitor school capacity in terms of the potential 100,000 Ukrainian children of school going age needing places in the Irish schools system.

To facilitate this development it was necessary to strengthen the Department of Education’s GIS development team as a matter of urgency and as a result two non-competitive procurement contracts were entered into to facilitate this development work:

Company	Reasons for Non-Use of Competitive Process	Duration of Contact
GIS Express	Urgency/Expert service/recent experience withSupplier	8 months
People & Places Limited	Urgency/Expert service	6 months

Translations services were also procured from Word Perfect Translations to translate English documents to Ukrainian and Russian of up to 100 pages. This contract was awarded following a quote process to ensure value for money, however, I am sure the Deputy can appreciate the urgency in which the translated material was required in order to provide materials to the intended recipients in a language which they could understand.

The information in respect of state bodies, within the scope of the Deputy’s question, is not held by my Department. Contact details for these bodies are set out in the attached document should the Deputy wish to contact them directly with this query.

Contact E-Mail Addresses for State Bodies under the Remit of the Department of Education as at 29 th March 2022

Name of Body	Dedicated Email address for the Members of the Oireachtas	Designated Official Responsible for assisting Oireachtas Members
An Chomhairle um Oideachais Gaeltachta agus Gaelscolaíochta	[e-mail]	[e-mail]
Educational Research Centre	[e-mail]	[e-mail]
National Centre for Guidance in Education	[e-mail]	[e-mail]
National Council for Curriculum and Assessment Note 1	[e-mail]	[e-mail]
State Examinations Commission	[e-mail]	[e-mail]
The Teaching Council	[e-mail]	[e-mail]
National Council for Special Education	[e-mail]	[e-mail] and [e-mail]
Residential Institutions Statutory Fund – Caranua	[e-mail]	[e-mail]

Note 1 - The spelling of the NCCA e-mail address to which Oireachtas queries may be addressed has been verified with the NCCA as being accurate