Judge rejects challenge to awarding of €75m retrofitting survey contract

An Abtran tender accused of being 30% below the current cost was found by the judge to be genuine and not abnormally low.

Wed, 04 Mar, 2026 - 20:00

Ann O’Loughlin

A losing bidder for a contract to provide surveys for the retrofitting of hundreds of thousands of properties throughout Ireland has lost a challenge to the awarding of the €75m contract.

The contract, which is awarded by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI), is set to last up to five years. The services include building energy ratings (BERs), surveys, and inspections for domestic and non-domestic properties.

The contract was held by Kerrigan Sheanon Newman Unlimited Company (KSN) which has been supplying the services to the SEAI since 2012.

A new public procurement process was held in which the SEAI awarded the contract to the firm Abtran in June 2024.

KSN then brought High Court proceedings against the SEAI, with Abtran as notice party, challenging the award.

In a judgment delivered last month and published this week, Mr Justice Rory Mulcahy refused KSN’s application for judicial review of SEAI’s decision to award the contract to Abtran.

In its proceedings, KSN claimed the Abtran tender was too low, pointing out that it was 30% lower than the price currently being paid to KSN for the service.

The SEAI disputed KSN's claims and opposed the challenge to the awarding of the contract.

Mr Justice Mulcahy said KSN failed to establish any manifest error by SEAI in its determination that Abtran’s bid was genuine and was not abnormally low.

SEAI was also entitled to conclude that Abtran had adequately explained its costs and proposed resources, he said.

The evidence did not establish that there was a clear error by SEAI in accepting that Abtran could perform the contract with the resources proposed, he said.

None of a number of other grounds pleaded by KSN provided any basis for a remedy, he said.