John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Mr. Watt gave a very positive opening statement about the work of the Civil Service. The other side of that is when it fails. In his opening statement he said that the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform manages the Government's eTenders platform, that it delivers procurement solutions for public bodies and so on. In the context of what he stated, he must reflect on the enormous overruns that are taking place. I just want to deal with this in a general way. However, I know other members mentioned the children's hospital. We invited Mr. Watt to appear before the committee to discuss the public services card and he would not come in, nor would the Minister.

Within the schools building programmes we had the Carillion issue and all the local small builders affected by that. We have had constant overruns in the HSE as well as the enormous settlements being reached by the HSE in court having disgraced itself again by going through the entire court process. Mr. Watt must be disgusted at that. Despite all of his efforts and those of his Department, the procurement section and all that, the basic action of purchasing a printer gets so botched up. I want him to explain what he does when that happens. Does he ring the Secretary General and ask him, "What the f-ing hell are you up to?"