Tendered by the Office of Government Procurement (OGP), the procurement is for legal services to all public sector bodies excluding central government departments. It is the first of eight frameworks to be tendered by the OGP, with separate frameworks for central government, local authorities and the Health Service Executive (HSE) in the pipeline.
Parties eligible to participate in this first framework agreement include schools, all local authorities, health sector bodies including the HSE and hospitals and third level institutions (including institutes of technology).
The OGP has been established to centralise the procurement of common goods and services across the public sector, and has taken responsibility for the procurement of professional services.
The framework agreement is divided into 11 separate lots, each lot representing a legal practice area. The legal services areas which might typically arise under the Commercial & Corporate lot includes infrastructure projects and PPPs including project finance, while the Pensions, Finance, Banking & Insurance lot includes debt and equity capital markets, mergers and acquisitions. Other lots include property, telecoms and health.
Minister Harris said: "This approach aims to match public sector needs to the capacity and capability of the marketplace."
Tenders must be received by 23 November 2015. A tenderers briefing will be conducted in Dublin on 2 November.
Minister Simon Harris will address the Financing Irish Infrastructure conference on 19 November. For more information on the event, click here.