Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

That is the usual answer given by the Taoiseach on these matters. I am not sure whether the Taoiseach has been briefed on the four additional factors set out in the report, namely that there was no clear demand from management for the system and that management support was weak and has become weaker since the pause; substantial variations existed in pay and conditions, organisational structures, cultures and processes among agencies, the extent of which was not known before the commencement of the project; there was an inability to definitively freeze the business blueprints or requirements at any particular point in time; and there was a failure to comprehensively follow through on the pilot site implementation strategy before rolling it out throughout the country.

In terms of incompetence, the same applies in every other issue for which this Government is responsible. Last year, the Government spent €21 million on this project. This morning I listened to Fr. Peter McVerry, who said that young offenders were being allowed to rot in a warehouse and that literacy programmes were being cut in our prisons. This money could have supplied 100 public health nurses, while €20 million could buy 1 million hours of home help. A nine-bed intensive care unit could be built for only €2.5 million. The Taoiseach could have given a CAT scanner to Temple Street Hospital, in his constituency. A dialysis machine costs €35,000 and a mobile x-ray unit costs €40,000.

Nobody is in charge over there and the Astron report of September clearly points out what we predicted last year with regard to the PPARS project. Nobody is responsible, nobody is in charge and money is disappearing down the tube. Will the Taoiseach tell the Dáil today what he proposes to do about this? Who is in charge of this project? The Astron report states that there is no governance and nobody is in charge or responsible. Where is the Minister for Health and Children or the HSE while this Government is continuing to wilfully squander the people's taxes? What does the Taoiseach propose to do?

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