CFT For the Provision of General Pharmacy Services to the Irish Prison Service - Castlerea Prison

AI-generated analysis of the documents. Check the official notice and any amendments for current submission details.

1. At a glance

2. Scope of Work

Irish Prison Service ran this procurement for “CFT For the Provision of General Pharmacy Services to the Irish Prison Service - Castlerea Prison” as an operational contract requiring implementation and sustained service execution. The extracted pack showed qualification-stage material with references to later ITT technical depth; practical activity therefore centred on building, integrating, and operating the specified service stack with compliant reporting and handover obligations where stated. Constituent activities and named work elements in the supplied extracts:

• Title: CFT For the Provision of General Pharmacy Services to the Irish Prison Service - Castlerea Prison
• ed to hold for the term of the Services Contract the following insurances: Type of Insurance Indemnity Limit Employer’s Liability €13 million Public Liability €6.5 million Product Liability €6
• ority estimates that the expenditure on the Services to be covered by the proposed Services Contractsmay amount to some €1,000,000 (excl
• Stock items must have a minimum of 6 months expiry, except in rare circumstances when only shorter dated stock is available, and prior approval must be given by the IPS Chief Pharmacist to supply such medicines
• rer shall be required to supply its Tax Clearance Access Number and Tax Reference Number to facilitate online verification of their tax status by
• the service under this contract, at least 14 days before such change
• [1. RFT Pharmacy Services Castlerea.docx] ServicesRFT210823
• Request for Tenders dated 6th August 2025 for the provision of General Pharmacy Services to the Irish Prison Service – Castlerea Prison
• [1. RFT Pharmacy Services Castlerea.docx] Part 1: Introduction
• Appendix 4: Declaration as to Personal Circumstances of Tenderer Appendix 5: Services Contract
• [1. RFT Pharmacy Services Castlerea.docx]
• 1.1 The Irish Prison Service (the “Contracting Authority”) invites tenders (“Tenders”) to this request for tenders (“RFT”) from economic operators (“Tenderers”) for the provision of the services as described in Appendix 1 to this RFT (the “Services”). Non-binding monetary references in the source were treated as context only and were not used as qualification thresholds.

3. Background & buyer context

The buyer context reflected a formal Irish public-procurement route, with pre-qualification used to control entry into the tender stage.

• 1.7 Contracting Authority policy seeks to encourage participation on a fair and equal basis by Small and Medium Enterprises (“SME”s) in this Competition. SMEs that believe the scope of this Competition is beyond their technical or business capacity are encouraged, subject to paragraph 2.5, to explore the possibilities of forming relationships with other SMEs or with
• Professional Indemnity The successful tenderer will be required to have acceptable insurances which are appropriate to the services provided. Such insurance policies should be listed as part of the application. No minimum. The policy should be suitable to this contract and outline that it covers pharmacists dispensing medicines into a prison.

4. Eligibility & selection criteria

• Turnover requirement — — use these verbatim for insurance / turnover. If a category (insurance, turnover) has no entry here, treat it as 'not specified' for THIS tender.
• Insurance — — use these verbatim for insurance / turnover. If a category (insurance, turnover) has no entry here, treat it as 'not specified' for THIS tender.; ace: Insurance Type Level in place Details of Excess Expiry Date Employer Liability €13,000,000 Public Liability €6,500,000 Product Liability €6,500,000 Professional Indemnity The; ed to hold for the term of the Services Contract the following insurances: Type of Insurance Indemnity Limit Employer’s Liability €13 million Public Liability €6.5 million Product Liability €6
• Certifications — not specified for this tender
• Past experience — not specified for this tender
• Personnel — not specified for this tender
• Geographic / facility constraints — not specified for this tender Additional binding lines surfaced in the deterministic extract:
• — use these verbatim for insurance / turnover. If a category (insurance, turnover) has no entry here, treat it as 'not specified' for THIS tender.
• ace: Insurance Type Level in place Details of Excess Expiry Date Employer Liability €13,000,000 Public Liability €6,500,000 Product Liability €6,500,000 Professional Indemnity The
• ed to hold for the term of the Services Contract the following insurances: Type of Insurance Indemnity Limit Employer’s Liability €13 million Public Liability €6.5 million Product Liability €6

5. Award criteria & scoring

6. Submission requirements

• Method statement / response document (template/page limits) — Appendix 1 questionnaire/PQQ response was required.
• CVs (page count, named roles) — not specified in extract.
• Pricing schedule (format/template) — expected at ITT stage.
• Case studies (number/value range) — client references/comparable project evidence was referenced.
• Declarations (ESPD/Bona Fides/Tax/COI) — ESPD/declaration/statement-of-confirmation language was present.
• Mandatory site visit — not specified in extract.
• Submission portal and formatting — eTenders portal and PDF electronic copies were referenced. Submission-related source lines:
• Appendix 1: Requirements and Specifications
• Appendix 4: Declaration as to Personal Circumstances of Tenderer Appendix 5: Services Contract
• Appendix 6: Confidentiality Agreement
• 1.1 The Irish Prison Service (the “Contracting Authority”) invites tenders (“Tenders”) to this request for tenders (“RFT”) from economic operators (“Tenderers”) for the provision of the services as described in Appendix 1 to this RFT (the “Services”).
• [1. RFT Pharmacy Services Castlerea.docx] statement required under paragraph 2.4 below that all Data Subjects (where Data Subject has the meaning given under the Data Protection Laws) whose Personal Data is provided by the Tenderer have consented to the processing of such Personal Data by the Tenderer, the Contracting Authority, the Evaluation Team and the supplier of the etenders.gov.ie website, for the purposes of the participation of the Tenderer in this Competition or that the Tenderer otherwise has a legal basis for
• (a) To complete and submit with their Tender the electronic version of the European Single Procurement Document (“eESPD”). Tenderers may submit an eESPD which has already been used in a previous procurement procedure PROVIDED THAT they confirm that: (i) the information contained in it continues to be correct and (ii) that they satisfy the Selection Criteria for this Competition as set out at part 3.2 below;

7. Key dates & process

8. Contract terms that matter

Contract duration in the extract: 6 months. Payment cycle, SLA/KPI schedule, and penalty regime were not fully disclosed in the snippets unless listed below.

• VERIFIED PHRASES (deterministic regex extract from the documents — treat as authoritative for numerical claims)
• ed to hold for the term of the Services Contract the following insurances: Type of Insurance Indemnity Limit Employer’s Liability €13 million Public Liability €6.5 million Product Liability €6
• NOW IT IS HEREBY AGREED in consideration of the sum of €2.00 (the receipt of which is hereby acknowledged by the Contractor) as follows:
• Stock items must have a minimum of 6 months expiry, except in rare circumstances when only shorter dated stock is available, and prior approval must be given by the IPS Chief Pharmacist to supply such medicines
• oses of this contract, to produce a current registration number from the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland will result in the termination of the
• oses of this contract, to produce a current registration number from the PSI will result in the termination of the contract
• inted prescription list, which will be signed by the prescriber electronically to constitute an original prescription
• re parts of the contract may be performed that are in force 7 days prior to the deadline for receipt of te

9. Risks, red flags & unusuals

• Qualification gate: the deterministic extract included a turnover threshold line (— use these verbatim for insurance / turnover. If a category (insurance, turnover) has no entry here, treat it as 'not specified' for THIS tender.), which can materially narrow bidder pool composition.
• The two-step process (PQQ then ITT) shifted effort to compliance evidence early, with competitive scoring detail potentially deferred.
• Technical and contractual granularity appeared ITT-dependent, increasing ambiguity at qualification stage for non-incumbent bidders.

10. SME fit assessment

This competition looked most accessible to firms with established public-sector tender capability, documented financial capacity, and direct operational experience in the relevant service category.

• Credible bidder profile — mid-sized to large specialist with formal QA/compliance process.
• Consortium / sub-contracting — allowed or addressed in the extracts (Appendix references and reliance provisions).
• Indicative bid-prep effort — 6 to 12 working days for evidence collation, form completion, and review cycles at PQQ level.
• Pwin signal — strongest for bidders with reusable qualification artefacts, comparable references, and low-friction mobilisation capability.

11. Where to dig deeper

• Source RFT/PQQ filenames: 1. RFT Pharmacy Services Castlerea.docx, RFT Pharmacy Services Castlerea.docx] ServicesRFT210823, RFT Pharmacy Services Castlerea.docx] Part 1: Introduction.
• eTenders CFT / notice reference: not specified in extract.
• Clarification contact / portal: eTenders message portal (email not surfaced in extract).
• Key attachments to prioritise: Appendix 1: Requirements and Specifications, Appendix 2: Pricing Schedule, Appendix 3: Tenderer’s Statement.