Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I think the Minister would agree that it is not acceptable for somebody to be left holding on for 90 minutes when they make a phone call. That is not good enough. There are staff in the Department who work very hard and I concur with the Minister because I saw them working there. If the Minister does not put enough people on to man or woman the lines – women do an awful lot of this good work – she is in trouble. That is a problem.

Surely the Minister is not intending to roll out this system for any further payments after this fiasco until this report comes clear and we get an opportunity to examine, scrutinise and invigilate it to ensure that the mess that was made of this is sorted out. Deputies Brady and O'Dea are correct, we are paying out many thousands of euro to consultants and everybody else when it might be better to allow the Department's people to work within their own system and make qualifications to ensure that it complies with modern day standards. I would be against any further roll out of this until this problem is sorted out.

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