Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

The Taoiseach comes into this House and says we can go on and work this system. Is the Taoiseach saying he will spend the extra money to try and find a software system that would meet the requirements set down by this commission? I remind him that when his Minister rushed this through the House the first time, he made it a charge on the Central Fund. The entire €52 million was a charge on the Central Fund with the purpose of escaping scrutiny by the Committee of Public Accounts and the Comptroller and Auditor General. He did that deliberately and knowingly, with all this blather from himself and the Minister, Deputy Noel Dempsey about us being at the frontier of the intelligent island. There is nothing very intelligent about having wasted €52 million of taxpayers' money and where we now find ourselves tied into 25-year leases when the lifetime of the machinery is 20 years.

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