Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

It is important that the House record its thanks to Kieran Mulvey and his team from the Labour Relations Commission for arriving at a settlement in the Irish Ferries dispute, despite the fact that the Government, through the Taoiseach, said a number of weeks ago that nothing further could be done. While this will change the nature of social partnership, it is very important for the economy that this matter has been settled.

I want to raise with the Taoiseach the Comptroller and Auditor General's report on the PPARS debacle. The Taoiseach should examine the commentary of the Comptroller and Auditor General in respect of his Ministers and their Departments. The Comptroller and Auditor General identified a number of key issues concerning the debacle, which was first raised by me five months ago in the House. The report stated there was a failure to develop a clear vision and a void in decision making caused by the poor handling of the changeover from 11 health boards to the new Health Service Executive. This was explained to the Fine Gael parliamentary party by the chief executive, who said 3,000 of the administrators did not know what their jobs were.

The report also stated there was an initial budget of €9 million which mushroomed to €195 million. The Comptroller and Auditor General stated both internal appraisals of the project fell short of the requirements of a full business case for the project. He said consultants were brought in on very generous terms, that there was no sharing of risk and that the State carried all the risk. A number of contractors were paid higher fees than the ones they tendered at and one recruitment agency, registered in the British Virgin Islands, was paid €2 million. Nobody seems to know who is involved in this company, who represents it and what it was paid for.

At the end of seven years under the Taoiseach's watch, the final cost, excluding that pertaining to voluntary health agencies, is €195 million. We are left with a system that caused little or no redeployment. Additional resources are required for the system and, damningly, there is no evidence of staff savings having been achieved. It is five months since I raised this issue in the House on notice given to me by a concerned citizen. The issue is a scandal and has been discussed by the Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children on a number of occasions.

The Taoiseach received the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and, in this regard, I would like to ask him three simple questions. Whom does he hold responsible for this debacle? Who is being held accountable for this litany of waste? What lessons has the Government learned from this episode?

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