Employer perspective of the new Irish public works contract

The objective of this paper is to set out the headline issues to be considered when preparing the new Irish public works contracts for tender. The first section provides a general introduction, which is followed by an explanation of when the new contracts should be used and a description of the different forms of the new contract that are available. The next section describes the new mindset for drafting the drawings and specification, in particular in relation to preserving the lump sum and selecting subcontractors. Risk allocation, in particular the use of the optional compensation events, is explained in the fifth section and the sixth considers the administrative requirements of the new contract that will need to be taken into account when preparing the tender. The untypical items in the schedule to the new contract that needs to be completed by the public authority are then listed and the final section contains a short conclusion. Two useful tables are also included: one sets out certain of the employer's risks in the public works contract previously used in Ireland (the IEI) and analyses whether these are included in the Government Contracts Committee for Construction (GCCC) contract, and the other sets out certain of the contractor's administrative requirements under the GCCC contract and analyses whether these are included in the IEI.