10. Deputy Cathy Bennett asked the Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation if he will outline the advice and support provided by his Department to other Departments or bodies under their aegis regarding the procurement of IT systems. [51486/26]

Sentiment score: 0.13

Government IT projects have become synonymous with overspends, not best practice, as far as I can see. Of 220 such projects since 2024, 67 have projected overspends or have had overspends. The Department contains various units in agencies that sanction projects or provide advice on the activities of Departments and State bodies. I am thinking of the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer, OGCIO, the Office of Government Procurement, the National Shared Services Office and the advisory services that the Minister of State mentioned. Yet, somehow, when it comes to IT projects, time and again, there are gross overspends and even project write-offs. Does the Minister of State accept there is a problem and that his Department has a role to play in addressing this? What is he going to do about it?

Sentiment score: -0.05

I do not know how the Minister of State can say there is early engagement when a €4.3 million Fórsa project was abandoned, an unaffordable affordable childcare ICT system exceeded its original estimate of €3.5 million by nearly 50%, and now, €30 million spent by Irish Rail has effectively been written off. These are just examples of the tens of millions of euro in taxpayers’ money that is as good as gone. I am not seeking to absolve the Accounting Officers of the responsibility but it is clearly widespread across Departments. It is a big problem. In the context of the Arts Council, some €5.3 million was written off. We saw a State body report its concerns. It tried to seek assistance from the Department but never got it and in return, the Department allowed it to flounder and did not give the help it was seeking. We found this out at the Committee of Public Accounts. There is a multimillion euro public expenditure crisis due to the lack of competence. More needs to be done. I ask the Minister of State to ensure the necessary reforms are introduced to end the unnecessary waste.

Sentiment score: -0.01