Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Question 128: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children if her Department has submitted to the Department of Finance a declaration that the levels of expenditure planned for the PPARS system for the rest of 2005 are necessary to deliver the project; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [27339/05]

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Question 129: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children her views on the nature and cost of the support services being provided to the PPARS project by Deloitte and Touche; if she has satisfied herself that the day rate charged by the firm is appropriate; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [27340/05]

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Question 130: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children if she has satisfied herself that the PPARS system will result in a reduction of the cost base in human resources with the Health Service Executive; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [27341/05]

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Question 131: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children the person who is the senior officer responsible for the PPARS system; her views on the composition of the national team; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [27342/05]

Finian McGrath (Dublin North Central, Independent)
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Question 152: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children the person who is responsible and accountable for the overrun of €150 million on the payroll system in her Department. [27519/05]

Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 128 to 131, inclusive, and 152 together.

Prior to the establishment on 1 January 2005 of the Health Service Executive with its own Vote, health services were delivered by the individual health boards which were funded by grants from the Vote of my Department. The first contracts for the PPARS system were signed by five of the former boards and St. James's Hospital in 1998. The health boards executive was established in 2002 to facilitate joint working by health boards and took over the lead role for the project, but funding continued to be paid to the individual health boards.

By the end of 2004 the total amount of funding provided for the project by my Department amounted to some €110 million and the HSE indicated that a further €55 million or so would be required in 2005. The HSE decided on 6 October that any further development of the project should be put on hold and that an executive group will now establish the long-term value of PPARS in the context of the HSE's national unified structure.

The Comptroller and Auditor General's Office is carrying out a value for money examination of the project. This has been a matter of public record for some time. The examination will, I expect, address issues such as the development, governance and management of the project. My Department is, in that context, reviewing its own role in the project.

My Department and the Department of Finance had previously raised concerns about the costs of the project, specifically in relation to the consultancy and staffing costs. Last July, the Secretary General of my Department asked the HSE to undertake an urgent review of the project and is awaiting a formal report from the HSE following the meeting of its board last Thursday.

PPARS was funded each year from within the annual estimates, both current and capital. Successive Ministers would have been involved in agreeing the overall capital requirement for ICT, which would have also been examined by the Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children and approved by the Dáil.