Government skips tendering process to award contracts catering for Ukrainian refugees

The contracts have been awarded to Aramark, who previously held contracts at different Direct Provision centres

Alesiy, 10, looks out of a bus at the city of Bashtanka, as she and her family escape from the Kherson district of Ukraine on Thursday. Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth Roderic O'Gorman told TDs that the traditional procurement process had been "short-circuited" due to the crisis nature of providing services. Photo: AP/Petros Giannakouris

A leading provider of Direct Provision services has been handed State contracts for catering for Ukrainian refugees without a tendering process, the Dáil has been told.

Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth Roderic O'Gorman told TDs that the traditional procurement process had been "short-circuited" due to the crisis nature of providing services.

People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett told the Dáil that a local catering company in his Dun Laoighaire area was "pretty disgusted" that, "without any tendering process, Aramark has been given all the contracts to provide catering to the refugee hubs for Ukrainians".

"As the Minister will know, Aramark has been a very controversial company. 

It has been criticised for the poor quality of its catering in US prisons and for the poor quality of some of the catering it provides people in the abhorrent direct provision system. 

"There were protests by artists and workers at the National Gallery about it getting the contract for the café in the National Gallery, which is right here beside us. It was recently caught up in unofficial strike action because it did not give redundancy terms to catering workers in the old Bank of Ireland site. 

"Is it true that this company, a US multinational, has just been given all the contracts for catering for Ukrainian refugees?"

Mr O'Gorman said that speed was needed to ensure the provision of food to refugees.

He said: "We are dealing with a crisis that this country has never had to experience before, and we are dealing with it in a way that ensures every Ukrainian who comes to this country seeking shelter and security can be given it. That has meant we have not been able to use the traditional procurement processes. 

"We have had to short-circuit processes in order to ensure people get fed and get shelter. If we did not do that and had long delays I have no doubt the Deputy and others would be condemning the Government, and they would be right to do so. We have had to move quickly."

Aramark, a services provider which has previously held contracts for catering and facilities and property management at different Direct Provision centres, was paid €7.7m for the operation of three State-owned centres in 2020. 

The centres are at Kinsale Road in Cork City, Knockalisheen in Co. Clare, and the Lissywollen site at Athlone in Co. Westmeath. The company has held the contract for operating Knockalisheen, which can accommodate 250 people, since 2016.

In a statement issued on Thursday night, a spokesperson for Aramark said: "We are among a large number of companies who have been approached by the State’s International Protection Accommodation Services (IPAS) to respond to the emergency situation arising from the invasion of Ukraine by Russia.

Having been approached by IPAS, we were, within 24 hours, able to deploy food and catering services to the people in the Ukrainian refugee accommodation service operated by the State. 

To clarify, we are currently providing food services to one centre. We are proud to be able to deploy our significant capabilities at such short notice during this unprecedented period.

"We have the capacity to deliver large quantities of food and catering services at short notice and we will continue to assist the Irish Government in this national response. 

"We operate to the highest international food quality standards which are independently verified."