Senator Gerard Craughwell- speech from 18 Oct 2022

Crocwell. Goedemiddag, Goedemiddag. Goedemiddag, Leader. On 31 August I wrote to Ministers Ryan and Nocton following a request from a member of the public about tender documents that had been released by the Department of Transport for the procurement of consultancy services for search and rescue services. My letter questioned why there were two very similar tenders in the marketplace. The first detailed tender issued in June and closed on 31 August. The second tender, which seemed to be for the same job, required less expertise and closed recently. In my letter I questioned these tenders and how they would be adjudicated on, given that we have no aviation expertise within the Department of Transport, despite this being a key recommendation of the AAIU. By way of reply I received a letter from the Secretary-General of the Department of Transport where he states the following. The document is not in the public domain. It was provided only to entities who passed stage one of the process. Your presentation of the documents is causing serious concern. Consequently, officials from my department, at my request, have consulted the Office of the Chief State Solicitor and the Office of Attorney-General. In order to protect the integrity of the procurement process, I wish to ask you, how did you come into possession of this confidential request for tender? I also request that you would not read, print, copy or circulate the document to any third party. Please delete from your email system any emails or attachments where the request for tender can be found electronically and destroy any hard copies if any have been made. Now, as a public representative, all in this House will from time to time receive documents and possibly question which are of concern to members of the public. I believe that we are obliged to bring the concerns of the public to the relevant minister or ministers, and this is exactly what I have done. I have to say I was rather shocked by the intimidating reply from the Secretary-General of the Department. Leader, we are living in stressful times, nothing is more certain. The report of the fatal crash of Rescue 116 provides undisputed evidence of a litany of reckless behaviour and failings on the Department of Transport, the Coast Guard and the operator of this vital service. Changes were recommended. Equally, our taxpayers need to be protected from decisions which lead to poor value for money. The Department of Transport and the Irish Coast Guard have been shown to be lacking in their capacity to remain an intelligent customer for aviation in general, and SAR in particular. Yet instead of complying with the recommendations of the AAIU, they still have no aviation expertise, instead rely on consultants. The Department can tender for experts to minimise risk, but they cannot tender out responsibility. I am disturbed that any civil servant would be unaware of the Howland v Morris judgment on the private papers of members and feel that he or she can use his or her position to intimidate a member, a public representative. The Secretary-General, just in relation to the language in terms of the letter from the Secretary-General, while of course you are entitled to bring up issues like that, describing it as intimidating. It was intimidating for me, Gar-Hurlough. The Secretary-General, just be careful. It was intimidating for me. When a member of this House is told that an email that was sent to Ministers was being referred to the Chief State Solicitor and the Attorney-General, that is intimidating. Anyway, I would like the Minister for Transport to come to the House to reassure all members of this House that he does not support or subscribe to any form of intimidation. I would ask the Secretary-General to comply with EU regulations, EU Directive 2014-24 EU Article 83, and appear before the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communication, and deal with the substantive issues surrounding the SAR contract. Finally, no member of this House should be subjected to any form of intimidation, and I take the Coyerlough's point on the word intimidation, but this is not the first threatening letter that I have had from the same Department. So I do not believe that as public representatives, and the Secretary-General must surely be aware of Howland versus Morris, and is aware of the fact that he cannot compel me to produce any documents or to deliver names of people who have contacted me. There is a massive amount of concern, not just from me, but from those who are interested in providing services to this country, that they are not being dealt with particularly well. The Secretary-General has an opportunity to come before the Joint Oireachtas Committee and answer the questions that need to be answered. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.