Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)

They were given the money. An evaluation is being done both by the Comptroller and Auditor General and the Health Service Executive and the HSE will decide at its board meeting in December whether to continue to roll out this system. It will be a matter for the executive having evaluated its requirements and whether this system can meet its needs but among the difficulties, and I want to acknowledge them, is that there was no fixed price contract with the consultants. It appears that the more they worked, the more they got paid. There was no incentive in the contract for the consultants to deliver a particular project and get paid on the basis of results, which should be normal.

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