Provision of consultancy services to carry out a Strategic Environmental Assessment and Appropriate Assessment for the preparation of the Cork City Council Climate Action Plan 2024–2029

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

Cork City Council ran this procurement for “Provision of consultancy services to carry out a Strategic Environmental Assessment and Appropriate Assessment for the preparation of the Cork City Council Climate Action Plan 2024–2029” 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 consultancy services to carry out a Strategic Environmental Assessment and Appropriate Assessment for the preparation of the Cork City Council Climate Action Plan 2024–2029
• Minimum requirement to remain eligible in the competition: Tenderers should provide information on the measures in place to ensure the delivery of a quality service, for example by way of an externally certified system,
• Local Authorities are the closest and most accessible form of Government to citizens. They have responsibility for delivery of a wide range of services in their local area with a focus on making cities, towns and countryside attractive places to live, work and invest. These services generally include housing, planning, infrastructure, environmental protection, and the provision of recreation and amenities and community infrastructure. Local Authorities also play a key role in supporting economic development and enterprise at a local level.
• Cork City Council invites tenders to this Request For Tenders (RFT) from economic operators (“Tenderers”) for the provision of the services (the “Services”) as described in Section 3 and summarised as follows:
• The Climate Action Plan (CAP) produced by Cork City Council will be subject to screening for a SEA and an AA. If deemed necessary, the Services will require the completion of a full SEA and carrying out a Stage 2 Natura Impact Statement, which will help appropriately shape and develop the CAP and ensure that the actions required under the CAP can be implemented sustainably and minimise any impact
• [Request for Tender - Cork City Climate Action Plan - SEA and AA.docx] for a SEA and an AA. If deemed necessary, the Services will require the completion of a full SEA and carrying out a Stage 2 Natura Impact Statement, which will help appropriately shape and develop the CAP and ensure that the actions required under the CAP can be implemented sustainably and minimise any impact on the environment.
• Cork City Council requires the services of a suitably qualified, multidisciplinary consultancy team(s) to carry out a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA), including a Screening Statement and, if deemed necessary, a SEA Scoping Report, an Environmental Report, consultations with relevant (including draft and any amendments following public consultations) at an appropriate scale, as well as preparation of SEA Statement, all of which comply with the requirements of the SEA Directive and associated legislation and guidelines. This will include all comments/inputs on all submissions received and input/comments required for the Chief Executive’s Reports on submissions received.
• In addition, the successful tenderer will carry out an Appropriate Assessment (AA), including Screening Report and, if deemed necessary, full AA Report (including the Natura Impact Statement in support of AA process), as required for the full process of producing the CC CAP, including consultations with relevant (including the draft and any amendments following public consultations) as required by the Habitats Directive to determine what impacts the CC CAP would be likely to have on any Natura 2000 sites. This will include all comments/inputs on submissions received for the purposes of the Chief Executive’s Report on submissions received.
• Expert and experienced consultancy services on SEA and AA are required to
• Expert and experienced consultancy services on SEA and AA are required to ensure that potential significant environmental impacts associated with the CC CAP (including through the development, draft and any amendments/variations/revisions following public consultations) are fully assessed at an appropriate scale and inform the emerging objectives and actions of the CAP and through the development of alternatives, preferred alternatives, mitigation and monitoring of the CAP.
• (d) The carrying out of a stage 2 Natura Impact Statement (NIS) in support of the AA process, if deemed necessary, in accordance with the requirements of Article 6 of the Council Directive 92/43/EEC of 21 May 1992 on the Conservation of Natural Habitats and of Wild Fauna and Flora (as amended) (hereafter referred to as the Habitats Directive), as transposed by the Birds and Natural Habitats Regulations (S.I. 477 of 2011), as amended.
• The successful tenderer will be responsible for the implementation and management of all stages of the SEA and AA processes in compliance with the requirements set out 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.
• Expert and experienced consultancy services on SEA and AA are required to ensure that potential significant environmental impacts associated with the CC CAP (including through the development, draft and any amendments/variations/revisions following public consultations) are fully assessed at an appropriate scale and inform the emerging objectives and actions of the CAP and through the development of alternatives, preferred alternatives, mitigation and monitoring of the CAP.
• (b) Full SEA, if deemed necessary, in accordance with the EU SEA Directive (2001/42/EC), European Communities (Environmental Assessment of Certain Plans and Programme) Regulations (S.I. 435 of 2004 2004 as amended S.I. 200 of 2011) and EPA Guidelines insofar as they relate to the SEA and best practice in SEA;
• Screening: To involve a screening process for AA (including the draft and any amendments following public consultations) on any Natura 2000 Sites potentially affected by the CAP, setting out the qualifying interests and conservation objectives of the sites.

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.; Insurance Confirmation of the following insurances being in place: Employer’s Liability - €13 capacity to pay its debts identified on; Insurance Confirmation of the following insurances being in place: Employer’s Liability - €13 million Public Liability - €6.5 million Professional Indemnity - €1m Insurances
• 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.
• Insurance Confirmation of the following insurances being in place: Employer’s Liability - €13 capacity to pay its debts identified on
• Insurance Confirmation of the following insurances being in place: Employer’s Liability - €13 million Public Liability - €6.5 million Professional Indemnity - €1m Insurances
• red if successful Level in Place Level in Place 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 € € Professional Ind €13,000,000 € € Public Liabi
• lity Public Liability €6,500,000 €6,500,000 € € Professional Indemnity Professional Indemnity €1,000,000 €1,000,000 € € AND 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:
• Value: not disclosed (eTenders placeholder)
• Award of contract will be subject to the successful tenderer agreeing to the Contract 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 contract, 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 tenderers’ 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.
• In accordance with Directive 2014/24/EU, tenderers may have compiled a European Single Procurement Document (ESPD), either electronically via the eESPD on eTenders or as a separate uploaded attachment with the tender response, which will be accepted as evidence of compliance with Section 4.3 on condition that all information self-declared will be provided promptly on request at any time prior to an award decision.
• Tenderers should ensure that they have submitted sufficient relevant information in the Tender Response Document to allow their tenders to be assessed under each of the award criteria set out below.

7. Key dates & process

8. Contract terms that matter

Contract duration in the extract: 12 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)
• Minimum requirement to remain eligible in the competition: Tenderers must demonstrate compliance with all the relevant Health & Safety legislation
• Minimum requirement to remain eligible in the competition: Tenderers must demonstrate compliance with all the relevant Environmental legislation and guidelines
• re parts of the contract may be performed that are in force 7 days prior to the deadline for receipt of Te
• Small and Medium Enterprise Participation
• It is the policy of the Contracting Authority to promote participation by Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) on a fair and equal basis.
• SMEs are encouraged to explore the possibilities of forming relationships with other SMEs or with larger enterprises to meet the financial, economic or technical capacity requirements of the competition, if required.
• Tenderers may include individuals, partnerships, limited companies, groupings or any combination of the foregoing with or without legal personality. However, a grouping if successful will be required to establish legal personality to enter the contract.

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.
• Contract value was not disclosed in metadata, creating uncertainty on margin, resourcing, and financing assumptions.
• 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: Request for Tender - Cork City Climate Action Plan - SEA and AA.docx, Schedule 2 of S.I No. 435/2004 (amended by S, RFT) from economic operators (“Tenderers”) for the provision of the services (the “.
• eTenders CFT / notice reference: not specified in extract.
• Clarification contact / portal: eTenders message portal (email not surfaced in extract).
• Key attachments to prioritise: Appendix., Schedule 2 of S.I No. 435/2004 (amended by S.I. No. 200 of 2011)., schedule..