Provision of courier service for the delivery of water samples from multiple coastal locations around Ireland to EPA Laboratories in Monaghan and Dublin (2024)

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

Environmental Protection Agency ran this procurement for “Provision of courier service for the delivery of water samples from multiple coastal locations around Ireland to EPA Laboratories in Monaghan and Dublin (2024)” 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: Provision of courier service for the delivery of water samples from multiple coastal locations around Ireland to EPA Laboratories in Monaghan and Dublin (2024)
• Services comprised of knowledge or skill (including but not limited to the provision of advice, design, specifications, IT consultancy and similar), professional indemnity insurance (including for breach of intellectual property rights, breach of data protection, libel and slander, contractual liability and non-performance) with the minimum liability cover of €1M in respect of any and all claims in agg
• Tenderer is requested to supply details of number and geographic spread of vehicles to be used in this tender
• There is also an Office of the Director General (ODG) which is a small unit supporting the Director General.
• The EPA is a multi-disciplinary and multi-functional organisation currently employing approximately 494 staff who perform both administrative and technical field based functions. An organisational structure is available on the EPA website. The EPA managed work locations, spread regionally over eight locations, outlined below include both office & laboratory environments. Off-site operations include inspection and/or monitoring of a broad range of sites and facilities, for example, water bodies, landfill sites, industrial sites, medical facilities, drinking water and wastewater facilities, waste treatment plants, intensive agriculture, and off shore activities. Laboratory and sampling activities include chemical, biological and radiological.
• The Contracting Authority proposes to engage in a competitive process for the award of a contract for Provision of courier service for the delivery of water samples from multiple coastal locations around Ireland to EPA Laboratories in Monaghan and Dublin (2024) as specified hereunder.
• The Water Framework Directive (2000/60/EC) (WFD) was adopted in October 2000 and transposed into Irish legislation by the European Communities (Water Policy) Regulations 722/2003. The objective of the Directive is to prevent any further deterioration in status of surface waters, groundwater and water dependent ecosystems and to restore polluted water bodies to at least ‘good status’. Under the WFD, the types of water bodies requiring assessment include rivers, lakes, groundwater and transitional & coastal waters. A national monitoring programme to provide an overview of water status in transitional and coastal waters has been established and is undertaken by the Environmental Protection Agency, Marine Institute and the Inland Fisheries Ireland. The programme is coordinated by the EPA. As part of the monitoring programme samples are collected from estuaries and coastal waters from around the country 4 times each year. Sampling is undertaken Monday to Thursday to allow for delivery to laboratories for next day analyses.
• This tender seeks the provision of courier services for the delivery of water samples from various locations around Ireland to EPA laboratories in Monaghan and Dublin.
• If, following the award of a contract, the successful tenderer cannot, for whatever reason, deliver the required services to the satisfaction of the Contracting Authority; the Contracting Authority reserves the right to award the contract to the next highest scoring tenderer emerging from the process at any time during the contract tender validity period.
• The tenderer is required to provide courier service for the collection of water samples from various locations around Ireland and the delivery of these samples to EPA laboratories in Monaghan and Dublin. EPA Monaghan address: EPA Regional Inspectorate Monaghan, The Glen, Monaghan H18 YT02. EPA Dublin address: EPA Regional Inspectorate Dublin, Richview, Clonskeagh Road, Dublin 14 D14 YR62.
• The Contracting Authority requires tenderers to nominate a dedicated contract manager who will act as the main point of contact for the duration of the contract. This person shall have the authority to deal with all matters in relation to contracts and be responsible for the satisfactory delivery of the supplies/services required. The duties of the contract manager will include the following:
• Proactively discuss with the Contracting Authority ways of improving efficiency regarding service delivery in general and providing suggestions for improvement and cost savings 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.

• It is the policy of the Contracting Authority to promote participation by Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) on a fair and equal basis.
• The Water Framework Directive (2000/60/EC) (WFD) was adopted in October 2000 and transposed into Irish legislation by the European Communities (Water Policy) Regulations 722/2003. The objective of the Directive is to prevent any further deterioration in status of surface waters, groundwater and water dependent ecosystems and to restore polluted water bodies to at least ‘good status’. Under the WFD, the types of water bodies requiring assessment include rivers, lakes, groundwater and transitional & coastal waters. A national monitoring programme to provide an overview of water status in transitional and coastal waters has been established and is undertaken by the Environmental Protection Agency, Marine Institute and the Inland Fisheries Ireland. The programme is coordinated by the EPA. As part of the monitoring programme samples are collected from estuaries and coastal waters from around the country 4 times each year. Sampling is undertaken Monday to Thursday to allow for delivery to laboratories for next day analyses.

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.; Services comprised of knowledge or skill (including but not limited to the provision of advice, design, specifications, IT consultancy and similar), professional indemnity insurance (including for breach of intellectual property rights, breach of data protection, libel and slander, contractual liability and non-performance) with the minimum liability cover of €1M in respect of any and all claims in agg; regate arising in any twelve period; and IT consultancy and similar), professional indemnity insurance (including for breach of intellectual property rights, breach of data protection, libel and slander, contractual liability and non-performance) with the minimum liability cover of €1M in respect of any and all claims in agg
• Certifications — not specified for this tender
• Past experience — not specified for this tender
• Personnel — wing insurances being in place: Confirmation of the following insurances being in place: Insurance Type Insurance Type Required Level Employer’s Liability Employer’s Liability €13 million Public Liability Public Liability €6.5 million Personnel and Skills Personnel a
• 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.
• Services comprised of knowledge or skill (including but not limited to the provision of advice, design, specifications, IT consultancy and similar), professional indemnity insurance (including for breach of intellectual property rights, breach of data protection, libel and slander, contractual liability and non-performance) with the minimum liability cover of €1M in respect of any and all claims in agg
• regate arising in any twelve period; and IT consultancy and similar), professional indemnity insurance (including for breach of intellectual property rights, breach of data protection, libel and slander, contractual liability and non-performance) with the minimum liability cover of €1M in respect of any and all claims in agg
• regate arising in any twelve period; and in relation to all Contracts: public/product liability insurance with the minimum liability cover of €6.5M in respect of any and all claims in agg
• regate arising in any 12 month period; employer's liability insurance with the minimum liability cover of €13M in respect of any and all claims in agg
• l in Place Level in Place Details of Any Excess Details of Any Excess Details of Any Excess Renewal Date Renewal Date Renewal Date Employers Liability Employers Liability €13,000,000 €13,000,000 € € € Public Liability Public Liability €6,500,000 €6,500,000 € € € AND

5. Award criteria & scoring

6. Submission requirements

• Method statement / response document (template/page limits) — not specified in extract.
• 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:
• Please note that information relating to this Request for Tender, including clarifications and changes, will be published on the Irish Government Procurement Opportunities Portal www.etenders.gov.ie. Registration is free of charge and there is no charge for documents. Please note that the Contracting Authority accepts no responsibility for information relayed (or not relayed) via third parties.
• [1 RFT - Request for Tender Open (Contract) 2020-TraC WFD sample courier tender 2023.docx] changes, will be published on the Irish Government Procurement Opportunities Portal www.etenders.gov.ie. Registration is free of charge and there is no charge for documents. Please note that the Contracting Authority accepts no responsibility for information relayed (or not relayed) via third parties.
• Award of contract will be conditional upon acceptance of the Contracting Authority’s Terms and Conditions as appended at the relevant Appendix.
• Tenderers are required to review these terms and conditions and indicate their acceptance thereof as part of their tender submission. Any reservation with regard to these terms should be submitted as a query in accordance with the procedure described in the Instructions to Tenderers (Section 6) of this document.
• The Contracting Authority is using the Open procedure for the award of this contact, therefore, while all interested parties may submit a tender, only those demonstrating that they have the required level of financial and technical capacity will have their tender considered. In order to demonstrate a tenderer’s
• The Contracting Authority is using the Open procedure for the award of this contact, therefore, while all interested parties may submit a tender, only those demonstrating that they have the required level of financial and technical capacity will have their tender considered. In order to demonstrate a tenderer’s qualifications, tenderers are required to provide the information set out below in the Tender Response Document (TRD) which is based on a self-declaration model. However, tenderers are required to provide the minimum information required.

7. Key dates & process

8. Contract terms that matter

Contract duration in the extract: 12 month. Payment cycle, SLA/KPI schedule, and penalty regime were not fully disclosed in the snippets unless listed below.

• Title: Provision of courier service for the delivery of water samples from multiple coastal locations around Ireland to EPA Laboratories in Monaghan and Dublin (2024)
• VERIFIED PHRASES (deterministic regex extract from the documents — treat as authoritative for numerical claims)
• Services comprised of knowledge or skill (including but not limited to the provision of advice, design, specifications, IT consultancy and similar), professional indemnity insurance (including for breach of intellectual property rights, breach of data protection, libel and slander, contractual liability and non-performance) with the minimum liability cover of €1M in respect of any and all claims in agg
• regate arising in any twelve period; and IT consultancy and similar), professional indemnity insurance (including for breach of intellectual property rights, breach of data protection, libel and slander, contractual liability and non-performance) with the minimum liability cover of €1M in respect of any and all claims in agg
• h of data protection, libel and slander, contractual liability and non-performance) with the minimum liability cover of €1M in respect of any and all claims in aggregate arising in any twelve period; and
• The number and duration of extensions will be 1 term of 12 months
• nt of the invoice, the EPA will pay any such invoice within 30 days following the date of receipt of the in
• d for any reason, without penalty, by serving not less than 30 days’ written notice on the Supplier, in whi

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 - Request for Tender Open (Contract) 2020-TraC WFD sample courier tender 2023.docx, RFT - Request for Tender Open (Contract) 2020-TraC WFD sample courier tender 2023.d, Appendix..
• eTenders CFT / notice reference: not specified in extract.
• Clarification contact / portal: [email protected].
• Key attachments to prioritise: scheduled sampling dates. The tenderer is requested to build in flexibility to changes i, RFT, RFT As specified on title page .