Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will finish now. The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform is washing its hands of it. It is every bit as bad as the way in which the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources has dealt with the issue. It seems to me that there was a limited skill set that could not have been procured in a competitive environment. The situation is going on since 2005. From 2005 to 2013 not much happened, then the Department decided it was in a hurry and conveniently there were retired civil servants available and a legal firm that had previously worked on the issue. They all got the job. Two cases were reported to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, which did nothing, and everything went on hunky-dory until the Comptroller and Auditor General wrote his report and the consultants finished up in 2015. Now the Department has new rules and procedures in place. I do not buy that, because I have heard it here previously. It stinks that people get this sort of work from the inside, having previously worked on the inside, at values in excess of €145,000. Some of them are probably in receipt of pensions of that order as well. It is absolutely scandalous.

With your agreement, Chairman, I ask that the committee would express its absolute and total dissatisfaction with the manner in which this procurement has been done. It is not the first time. I am a relatively new member of the committee. Compliance on procurement rules by Departments seems to be something they might or might not do, and here it is obvious that it was not done and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, which is charged with making sure it should happen, did nothing about it. To be quite honest about it, I am absolutely disgusted with the whole thing. I am finished now.