Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)
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On the same issue, not only is it unfit for purpose, it is costing a fortune and I wonder to what extent the Minister and the Department are on top of it.

On breaches of public procurement rules, I acknowledge these figures are an estimate and I do not expect the Minister to know how many breaches will take place in 2018. Is there any indication that the issue is being addressed properly? If one looks at the most recent year for which we have figures, namely, 2016, the number of breaches of public procurement guidelines by An Garda Síochána alone was 94, which amounted to €27.8 million. Does the Minister expect to see a decrease for the 2017 and 2018 accounts? The figures suggest that breaches are increasing year on year, rather than decreasing. In 2015, there were 73 breaches of public procurement rules by An Garda Síochána. In July 2017, the director of finance for the Garda, Mr. Michael Culhane, told Deputy Connolly that he accepted 73 was a high number but the Garda was addressing actively all of those issues and working with the Office of Government Procurement. If we fast-forward to the 2016 accounts for An Garda Síochána, which were released in September 2017, there were 94 contracts which breached public procurement guidelines. As I said, that amounted to €27.8 million.

Is the Minister concerned that no one seems to be responsible for this? I asked Ms Josephine Feehily, chair of the Policing Authority, about this issue last month. She said that one thing that frustrated one of her colleagues was that if the Garda wants to hire a clerical officer, it must approval from the Policing Authority whereas if it wants to spend €10 million on ICT, it does not. She said the authority had a very narrow competence in respect of money and she believes it should be broadened. What are the Minister’s thoughts on that? To give him an example from today's figures, An Garda Síochána's expenditure on external ICT services for 2018 is estimated to be €41 million. In 2016, it was €50 million. An audit by the Garda internal audit section found that €26.5 million of that was paid to Accenture, dated from a contract of 2009 and was in breach of public procurement guidelines. Does the Minister have an indication as to whether the €41 million estimated to be spent on external ICT for 2018 has been properly tendered for?