Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

This is the third or fourth day we have had questions about IT related projects. Obviously, in that kind of parlance the fatal error of this Government is the fact that nobody is prepared to take responsibility when something goes wrong. The Tánaiste has made some effort to redress some of the scandalous waste of public money.

I am sure the Taoiseach is a person who likes to set the record straight. Last week, he claimed in the House with some pride that he had rejected the use of outside consultants when the e-Cabinet project was brought to fruition. He said he used his own staff and he was not prepared to bring in outside consultants because, to use his own words, they would cost a fortune.

On 15 July 2004, when the Minister, Deputy Hanafin, had responsibility for this project, she explained in her press release that there were not just one set of consultants, not two, not three, not four but five sets of consultants brought in to deal with that particular project. A company called eVision worked on the design and build, Fusio Limited did the on-line viewing, Bic Systems worked on the hardware, Fujitsu Siemens delivered the security systems and PwC did the feasibility study.

Is it not a fact of life that a catalogue of gross incompetence is the reason we do not have the additional 2,000 gardaí, the front-line services we deserve and why we still have waiting lists while trolleys are piled up in the corridors of some hospitals?

See this speech in context