Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

Is this a single error or a series of errors? Is there any prospect of the State being sued as a result, by people who relied on the information they got from this website? Does the Taoiseach agree with me that in terms of marketing ourselves as the intelligent island, it is not great PR that we cannot manage electronic voting, the electoral register or a website like this one? We seem to have great difficulties when we bring in consultants and the answer appears to be to bring in more consultants to correct the first consultants' work. Meanwhile, the cost keeps mounting up. This seems to be a pattern going back to the computerisation of most Departments. We made calamitous cock-ups, which were revealed in successive reports by the Comptroller and Auditor General. These concerned the Department of Agriculture and Food, the Department of Social and Family Affairs and so on. It is a very expensive business.

See this speech in context