Please note: all initial enquiries regarding Cold Lunch/Afterschool Club for Primary and Special Schools must be emailed directly to school.meals@welfare.ie Telephone: 071 9138625 Frequently Asked Questions – FAQ |
SEEKING TENDERS FOR COLD LUNCH/AFTERSCHOOL CLUB: Contract value below €50,000
Schools should not commence procurement for Cold Lunch/Afterschool Club until January 2026 to ensure schools can respond to clarification queries and to hold the site visit.
When the total contract value is less than €50,000 for a 3-year term, a minimum of three (3) written tenders must be sought.
Before issuing your Call for Tender, please ensure that you have already followed the procurement preparation guidance available here.
A checklist with detailed step-by-step guidance for contract value below €50,000 is available:
How to Issue a Call for Tenders for Cold Lunches/Afterschool Club (below €50k) – Checklist
PHASE 1: Prepare the procurement suite of documents.
1.1 Download and complete the below tender documents:
Call for Tender: CFT Cold Lunch and/or Afterschool Club (below €50k) template
Tender Response Document: TRD Cold Lunch and/or Afterschool Club (below €50k) template
Guidance on how to complete CFT and TRD is available:
Complete the Cold Lunch and/or Afterschool Club CFT and TRD – Video Guide
PHASE 2: Seek a minimum of three (3) written tenders, including the suite of documents prepared as above, by emailing service providers of your choice.
An email template is available in the Checklist linked above (available soon).
All emails must be issued at the same time to allow all companies the same time to respond.
Allow companies a minimum of 3 weeks to respond to your request.
Mandatory site visits must be between day 7 and day 13 after the CFT issuing date.
PHASE 3: Evaluate tenders received and issue result letters.
Before proceeding to the guidance available below, schools must understand these critical factors for consideration to prevent legal challenges: If public procurement competitions are not carried out appropriately, they can lead to legal challenge and reputational damage to the school and staff. For schools who are in the process of tendering for School Meals, it is critical to understand that they must follow the procurement rules of confidentiality, fairness, equal treatment and transparency. This means that schools can not: 1) share any information or engage in any way with any School Meals service provider outside of the formal procurement process. In the event a school does engage in any way with a School Meals service provider outside of the formal procurement process, it will jeopardise the school’s procurement process and possibly lead to its collapse, resulting in the need to retender, and open the school and its staff to legal risk and challenge; 2) discuss any details of the competition, the tenderers and/or their tenders with anyone outside of the school’s tender evaluation team, as the procurement process is strictly confidential. |
Steps to evaluate tender submissions and issue result letters:
3.1 It is best practice to wait until the tender deadline passes to open all the submission files received.
3.2 Set up your Evaluation Team.
Click here to see the recommended composition of an Evaluation Team.
3.3 Evaluation Team members to sign Conflict of Interest and Confidentiality Declaration.
Once your school’s Evaluation Team is formed, all members must read and sign a copy of the Conflict of Interest and Confidentiality Declaration.
3.4 Conduct the Compliance Check and Evaluation of the Qualitative Award Criteria.
Evaluation Spreadsheet Template for registering the compliance check, and scores and feedback for the qualitative award criteria. Please ensure to read guidance notes within this file. [This document is for the school’s records only.]
Report of Evaluation Template [This document is for the school’s records only.]
Guidance on how to complete the Evaluation Spreadsheet is available:
How to Complete the Cold Lunch and/or Afterschool Club Evaluation Spreadsheet – Video Guide
3.5 Draft, finalise and issue result letters to tenderers, according to your findings.
Letter templates:
Please note that the letters to unsuccessful tenderers must include bespoke feedback to each criterion, as per comments registered in your Evaluation Spreadsheet.
PHASE 4: Contract award process.
4.1 Sign the Contract and related documents.
Once the required standstill period has elapsed without challenge, and upon receipt of all required final documentation from the successful service provider, the school must complete the contract documents and print two original copies of each. These two copies are then sent to the Service Provider for their signature and return. Once both fully signed copies are returned, the school representative will countersign them, ensuring one fully executed original remains with the school and the other is returned to the service provider. Please note that the below documents must be completed and signed by both parties.
Services Contract (see Appendix 5 of your published CFT document), including all schedules.
Confidentiality Agreement (see Appendix 6 of your published CFT document).
Data Processing Agreement – DPA (see Appendix 8 of your published CFT document).
4.2 Publish a Contract Award Notice (CAN) on eTenders, if applicable.
Contracting authorities are required to publish contract award information for all procurements over €25,000 (exclusive of VAT) on the eTenders website on completion of the award whether the procurement was advertised on eTenders or not (for example, via email). Full details are contained in Circular 05/23.
For publishing a CAN for contracts between €25,000 and €50,000 on eTenders, please see OGP video guide on eTenders. Once you are logged in on your eTenders account, click on the “Guidance Videos” button on your home page, then expand the heading called “PUBLISH A NOTICE (EFORM)”, and follow the steps on the video guide named “Standalone Contract Award Notice, Single Lot - No TED Publication (General, Directive 24)”. If you need to register or retrieve an account, please see available guidance here.
Please note: all initial enquiries regarding Cold Lunch/Afterschool Club for Primary and Special Schools must be emailed directly to school.meals@welfare.ie Telephone: 071 9138625 Frequently Asked Questions – FAQ |