Mairéad Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)
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149. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if he will provide the list of capital projects for IT services, by his Department or bodies under its aegis, which had contracts valued in excess of €1million that failed to reach completion; the value that was written off, for the years 2022, 2023 and 2024, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30930/25]

Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
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I am informed that my Department does not have any IT projects in excess of €1 million that failed to reach completion or had a value written off them in the years listed.

Regarding the bodies under my Department’s remit, while these are operational matter for those bodies, following my appointment as Minister, issues were brought to my attention regarding a failed ICT project in the Arts Council and an unused X-ray machine in the National Gallery. Both these projects were funded directly by my Department.

Given the serious nature of these issues, I wanted assurance in relation to capital expenditure in other areas under the aegis of my Department.

I therefore requested my Secretary General to write to all the State bodies under its aegis in the culture, sport and media sectors, seeking information with regard to expenditure on capital projects since 2020 to provide assurance to me and, more important, the public with regard to the management of capital expenditure. Bodies were asked to provide budgetary information on capital projects costing more than €500,000 since 2020.

In addition, bodies were asked to identify if there were other capital projects below this level which should be brought to the Department’s attention for any other reason, such as where there has been significant expenditure on projects which were abandoned or have materially failed to deliver on their objectives.

I received a report from my officials in respect of this. The responses received provide assurance that there are not widespread issues similar to those which arose at the Arts Council and the National Gallery.

However, an issue was identified in the RTÉ response in relation to expenditure on one ICT project. I was concerned about this and I met with RTÉ to discuss further the background to the project, the reasons for the failure to deliver, and assurance that this would not happen again.

I asked for written confirmation of the measures in place to protect against such a project failure in the future. The DG subsequently wrote to me and his response noted that an external review of this project had taken place in 2023 and the learnings from that report have been incorporated into all major capital projects. RTÉ has taken a number of steps over the past 18 months aimed at mitigating the risk of such an issue recurring. Whilst it is disappointing that this happened, it is important to note that it is in the context of a significant number of substantial projects delivered annually by RTÉ.

Mairéad Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)
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150. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if he will provide the list of capital projects, by his Department or bodies under its aegis, which had contracts valued in excess of €5 million and which ran over cost in 2023, along with a description of the contract, the initial price and final price provided, in tabular form. [30936/25]

Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
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My Department in its current configuration was established in June 2025.

I am informed that my Department did not have any capital projects with contracts valued in excess of €5 million which ran over cost in 2023.

Regarding the bodies under my Department’s remit, while these are operational matter for those bodies. However, following my appointment as Minister, issues were brought to my attention regarding a failed ICT project in the Arts Council and an unused X-ray machine in the National Gallery. Both these projects were funded directly by my Department.

Given the serious nature of these issues, I wanted assurance in relation to capital expenditure in other areas under the aegis of my Department.

I therefore requested my Secretary General to write to all the State bodies under its aegis in the culture, sport and media sectors, seeking information with regard to expenditure on capital projects since 2020 to provide assurance to me and, more important, the public with regard to the management of capital expenditure. Bodies were asked to provide budgetary information on capital projects costing more than €500,000 since 2020.

In addition, bodies were asked to identify if there were other capital projects below this level which should be brought to the Department’s attention for any other reason, such as where there has been significant expenditure on projects which were abandoned or have materially failed to deliver on their objectives.

I received a report from my officials in respect of this. The responses received provide assurance that there are not widespread issues similar to those which arose at the Arts Council and the National Gallery.

However, an issue was identified in the RTÉ response in relation to expenditure on one ICT project. I was concerned about this and I met with RTÉ to discuss further the background to the project, the reasons for the failure to deliver, and assurance that this would not happen again.

I asked for written confirmation of the measures in place to protect against such a project failure in the future. The DG subsequently wrote to me and his response noted that an external review of this project had taken place in 2023 and the learnings from that report have been incorporated into all major capital projects. RTÉ has taken a number of steps over the past 18 months aimed at mitigating the risk of such an issue recurring. Whilst it is disappointing that this happened, it is important to note that it is in the context of a significant number of substantial projects delivered annually by RTÉ.