Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

——to allow us correct the ways of the past and deal with these issues in a proper way.

Deputy Kenny is right to say that people with design and international expertise were engaged on the e-Cabinet project. The point I made last week is that we did this for under €5 million because we needed the outside expertise to come in only to do some of the design work. We do not have those kind of designers within the system. The work was done by a project team consisting of members of the departmental staff. If that work had been undertaken by outside contractors the project would have cost tens of millions of euro whereas we spent only €4 million. That was my point.

Nobody in this House, or on this side of the House, defends waste. Nobody defends consultants where we should not have them.

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