EU Utility Directive 2014/25eu article 51.1 states:
“The term of a framework agreement shall not exceed eight years, save in exceptional cases duly justified, in particular by the subject of the framework agreement.”
In addition, Article 72 states:
“…It should also be clarified that there might be cases in which the length of the framework agreements themselves should be allowed to be longer than eight years. Such cases, which should be duly justified, in particular by the subject of the framework agreement….”
The DART+ Programme is an exceptional case due to the current forecasted size and duration of the programme. Due to the size of the programme, complexity of the project and funding arrangements there could be possible delays . Therefore to mitigate against this risk of delay and considering the current planned duration of the programme, IÉ are setting the duration of the framework agreement duration for an initial period of 10 years plus an additional optional 2 years which in total is 12 years.