I propose to take Questions Nos. 191 to 193, inclusive, together.
Bus Éireann, which operates the school transport schemes, on behalf of my Department, is responsible for the negotiation and awarding of school transport contracts to private operators.
In this regard, Bus Éireann has advised that an extensive procurement exercise was conducted in 2011 and 2012. Advertisements were placed on the etenders website, the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU), and in the Local and National Newspapers.
Applications were invited from operators of large, medium, small buses and taxis who were interested in undertaking, on a contractual basis, the operation of school transport services throughout Ireland.
Tenderers were provided with the criteria they would be assessed against in both the Pre Qualification and Invitation to Tender documents. The only information used in the evaluation of tenders was that which was submitted by the tenderer.
The evaluation reports contain commercially sensitive information and are therefore not available to tenderers. However, all unsuccessful tenderers are given details of the scores they received against each qualitative criterion and the reasons why they were unsuccessful. The scores of the successful tenderers were also supplied.