Gerry Horkan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

If they have broadband, that will be good, but one cannot do that for teachers and nurses. I accept that point. I have not mentioned public procurement but I want to make the point. There may be a great deal of good public procurement going on that we do not hear about because it is fine. I refer to projects such as broadband, the national children's hospital, which I will not go over, and the public service procured printer, although Mr. Watt will probably say it relates to the Oireachtas Commission or somebody. That is what the people see. That is what we all see. I am not saying Mr. Watt will not have a defence. It was not Mr. Watt, but ultimately they are all on the State payroll. Somebody somewhere made a costly decision and it is not something that any of us wants to see happen again.

In terms of data sharing and automation etc., there is scope for efficiencies in how one Department talks to another. With all the limits and regulations on not having staff looking at citizens' Revenue accounts, health records etc., there must be ways of using all the public data available so that a local authority tenant need not fill in a hundred forms, the details of which are already known to the Department of Finance or the Revenue Commissioners. I am not sure that there is enough on that. Mr. Watt might respond on that.