Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)

That would be normal and it should be the case. I am not aware of the number of individuals from this consulting firm who worked on this project but I do know that the amount of money spent on consultancy in this project and in other projects is excessive. That is why the Government decided today to put a new process in place across Departments in regard to both consultancies and information technology. We all have to learn lessons from this experience.

When I became aware in July that there were concerns about this matter, I spoke to the Secretary General in my Department. He met representatives of the HSE and asked them, on my authority, to ensure that no more staff were put working on this project pending its evaluation, and he asked that the evaluation be completed over the summer. It was completed and that was the evaluation that went to the board of the HSE last week.

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