All over the country people are out fundraising for vital life-saving equipment. They are running marathons, holding coffee mornings and doing trick-or-treat campaigns. It is only a short time since John Aldridge took up what he called singing to raise money for a CAT scanner in Temple Street children's hospital. The purpose of his efforts was to provide a piece of equipment that would prevent children with serious head injuries from having to be moved to Beaumont or the Mater. People do such things because the Government is not providing money for the required priorities, so where is the €13 billion expenditure on health going?

It is just over a year since I exposed to the House the financial disaster known as the PPARS project. I remind the Taoiseach that €144 million of people's hard-earned money went down the tubes in a system that underpays and misspends. It does everything except what it is supposed to do. In response to that matter, the Taoiseach said he would freeze the project, stop the rot and halt the waste. Neither the Taoiseach nor his Government did that, however. The Dáil was misled about that matter because he did not stop the project, nor did he stop the waste.

I have a copy of the Astron Consulting report, which was published in September this year. The report, which is a fundamental review of the PPARS project review, is worth reading. It does not need any sexing up because its findings are so stark. The report's conclusions are that the PPARS project was "badly conceived" and "poorly implemented". It also states that "the system is not stable yet" and "reflects the old (health board) structure". In addition, it states that "the ongoing costs are very high". This year, the Government spent over €21 million——

The Deputy's time has concluded.

——and it is proposed to do the same again next year. An even bigger shock is the report's finding that, from the start, the project's governance has not been strong. Since the pause, which was last October, "overall project governance appears to have gone". It has gone like the money and nobody is in charge. Nobody is responsible for the disappearance of €21 million down this black hole. Is this the financial engineering of which the Minister for Finance spoke?

The Deputy's time has concluded.

The final conclusion of this consultants' report is that PPARS might become a "never ending project". A year ago, the Taoiseach told us that he would stop the waste, stop the rot and see that the people's money was saved. What does he propose to do about it now in light of the Astron Consulting report?

We are spending almost €13 billion on the health service, a major proportion of which is going into new developments every year.

Administration.

Large amounts of that expenditure are going into projects to improve the quality of service for the public at every level. That is not to take away from the efforts of those engaged in charitable fundraising acts, which have always happened in this country.

The PPARS system has been implemented in six Health Service Executive areas so I am surprised that Deputy Kenny is asking us to stop it. To unravel it in those areas would waste money that is effectively working. It is supporting the human resource records for 70,000 staff on the payroll and a large amount of other projects in those Health Service Executive areas. As I said last year, the further roll-out of the scheme, other than in the six areas where it is working, is on hold. It currently remains on hold and no further work has taken place in those areas. The review carried out by the HSE since October 2005 concluded, first, that no long-term strategy should be adopted until the use of the system in existing sites is maximised and fully operational. That is what they are concentrating on. Second, the review concluded that the requirements of the new unified HSE structure should be clarified and that the PPARS project's capacity to fulfil these requirements should be verified.

Deputy Kenny will recall that the HSE did not exist when the PPARS project began. When the HSE started, therefore, one had to take account of the new structure, which is only in its second year. That work will take place over the next eight to nine months, led by the HSE's national director of services. That person is responsible for co-ordinating the activity and is implementing the project.

Sanction is pending for a capital cost of €2.844 million sought by the HSE for this year. No sanction has yet been agreed by the Department so no allocation has been sanctioned this year. Deputy Kenny mentioned a figure of €21 million but the overall cost estimate for the project in 2006 is €4.31 million, which is a recurring cost for the system as it is operating, including software, system-hosting and payroll support. There is a figure of €15.18 million for HSE staff and technical consultancy staff. These costs will continue to reduce as the system beds in. Unfortunately, we have not found a way of bringing in a new system that does not involve staff, and they must be paid. There is also a once-off cost of €1.55 million for hardware and consultancy.

Like all large organisations, the HSE requires comprehensive human resource support and payroll systems. Like other sectors, the HSE could not cover the entire country without using modern technological systems. There have been difficulties with the PPARS system, as there have been with IT systems all over the world. However, it is unreasonable for Deputy Kenny to ask the HSE not to continue to bed down the new system.

That is the usual answer given by the Taoiseach on these matters. I am not sure whether the Taoiseach has been briefed on the four additional factors set out in the report, namely that there was no clear demand from management for the system and that management support was weak and has become weaker since the pause; substantial variations existed in pay and conditions, organisational structures, cultures and processes among agencies, the extent of which was not known before the commencement of the project; there was an inability to definitively freeze the business blueprints or requirements at any particular point in time; and there was a failure to comprehensively follow through on the pilot site implementation strategy before rolling it out throughout the country.

In terms of incompetence, the same applies in every other issue for which this Government is responsible. Last year, the Government spent €21 million on this project. This morning I listened to Fr. Peter McVerry, who said that young offenders were being allowed to rot in a warehouse and that literacy programmes were being cut in our prisons. This money could have supplied 100 public health nurses, while €20 million could buy 1 million hours of home help. A nine-bed intensive care unit could be built for only €2.5 million. The Taoiseach could have given a CAT scanner to Temple Street Hospital, in his constituency. A dialysis machine costs €35,000 and a mobile x-ray unit costs €40,000.

Nobody is in charge over there and the Astron report of September clearly points out what we predicted last year with regard to the PPARS project. Nobody is responsible, nobody is in charge and money is disappearing down the tube. Will the Taoiseach tell the Dáil today what he proposes to do about this? Who is in charge of this project? The Astron report states that there is no governance and nobody is in charge or responsible. Where is the Minister for Health and Children or the HSE while this Government is continuing to wilfully squander the people's taxes? What does the Taoiseach propose to do?

I have already stated who is in charge of the programme, namely the national director of shared services. Deputy Kenny can quote from the report but I will give a more balanced interpretation. The Astron report states that PPARS is working quite well in some areas but that overall disappointment exists at what is being delivered. That is what I said one year ago. It confirms that any further roll-out decision is on hold and recommends that it should be based on the new HSE structure, which is now 20 months old. We all agree with that.

The report goes on to state that this would have to be with the support and participation of senior management, which is obvious, and that complexity surrounding staff terms and conditions would have to be removed. We all know that the old health board system had a variety of health boards around the country in which people worked under differing terms, conditions, contracts and work practices. That was the reason we decided, in 2001, to introduce a unified health system, the Health Service Executive, which has come into effect and is working successfully — although in a difficult position — towards implementing a policy on the more than 100,000 health service staff who are working hard throughout the country. The report states that it is difficult to identify realised cost savings in sites where the system has been implemented but that project staff levels were reduced from approximately 500 to 254 by May, and it gives the cost of the project.

The report's recommendations are that a long-term plan is required by the HSE, that as a first step, the HSE should stabilise the system in existing life sites and that we should address issues, including complexity, arising from variations in terms and conditions. That is why we set up the HSE. The report goes on to advise that we should improve ownership and governance. I have already stated that responsibility for this is with the national director of shared services for the health board. The report also recommends that we should have more management and information needs, identify requirements for transfer to shared services and agree steps for a transition to a single integrated HSE structure. That is precisely what is happening. In referring to the issues raised in the report, Deputy Kenny stopped when it came to the recommendations. They are in the same report and, if the Deputy turns over the page, he can read them. That is what is happening.

It says it is a never ending project with nobody in charge.

We do need a unified system. It would have been great if the information technology experts working on this system had been able to get it right on day one.

That is right — just like electronic voting.

They have completed a substantial part of the work and payrolls and rosters in six areas have been agreed. They ran into the fact that conditions, rosters and terms differed among health boards. In the old system, we did not even know how many people were working for the health boards.

The Government still does not know.

We do not know what they are doing either.

Allow the Taoiseach to continue without interruption, please.

That is why we established the Health Service Executive, why we are now getting value for money and are able to implement a better programme and why this Government has been successful in developing a proper integrated health system——

The Government has only been successful at wasting money.

——that has reduced waiting times for patients, improved the numbers of day patients and has far more staff working on frontline services. It is another credit to this Government.

If that is a credit, I am worried.