I am sure the Taoiseach is familiar with Accenture, the IT management company. It has positioned itself as one of the top earners of external contracts from Government Departments and State agencies. Various Departments are availing of its services, but its No. 1 contract in 2016 was with An Garda Síochána, which paid Accenture €26.5 million, and as astonishingly high as that figure is, it gets worse.

An audit by the Garda internal audit section into Garda information and communications technology, ICT, payments for 2016 and completed in August 2017, which RTÉ's John Burke got following a freedom of information request, found serious problems with the Garda contract with Accenture. The aim of the audit was to examine the payments process in ICT, specifically the authorisation of payments and the contractual position with vendors, and to obtain assurances that projects were monitored. The audit also sought to obtain assurances that control over expenditure on ICT was sufficiently robust to satisfy the European Commission. The audit found no assurances that public procurement requirements were being complied with, and this represented a high risk. The Garda contract with Accenture, which was provided to the audit, is dated August 2009. The audit stated that, as this contract was not renewed since 2009, it was not satisfied that An Garda Síochána complied with procurement obligations. The audit notes that Accenture staff are the only external IT contractors who do not record their attendance and hours on an electronic clocking system. The audit also found that controls over payments were generally effective, but not in the case of Accenture. Not only are there problems with the contract and the staff, the audit also found that An Garda Síochána had been paying Accenture in advance, before the work was done, and that this was highly unusual in An Garda Síochána and, as the Taoiseach will know, it is pretty unusual in most businesses.

Neither did any of the new arrangements which had been made with Accenture since 2009 go out to tender. Accenture is the very same firm which developed the now infamous PULSE system, which the head of the Garda Inspectorate, Robert Olsen, said was not fit for purpose, was 1990s technology and was time to be retired. That was more than two years ago.

Who in An Garda Síochána has the authority to make these payment decisions? Does pre-paying a multinational company millions of euro on a contract nine years out of date with staff who do not even clock in properly sound like value for money? Someone needs to be held to account for this. How much does the Department of Justice and Equality know about what is going on? I put in a parliamentary question on 1 June 2017 about all Garda contracts with Accenture. I got the information in a reply on 19 December, more than six months later. Is the Department in the dark about what is going on? Is this the norm for Accenture? It has contracts with numerous Departments and agencies. Is this happening in other areas as well?

I am familiar with Accenture. I think it is a very good firm. It does a lot of important work in the private sector and has a lot of Government contracts as well. I think it had a contract in my former Department, the then Department of Social Protection, which I assume was tendered in the normal way. Public bodies should always follow public procurement rules, full stop. If it is the case that An Garda Síochána did not follow proper public procurement procedures, that is not acceptable to the Government. The reason we have public procurement rules is to ensure that companies can bid and get a fair crack of the whip when it comes to applying for public contracts. It is also how we ensure that taxpayers get the best value for money and how we ensure citizens get the best outcomes. I discussed the matter with the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Charles Flanagan, and we have sought a report from the Garda Commissioner into this issue.

There is no "if" about whether the Garda followed proper procedure. The Garda internal audit has established that it did not. This is not something that happened overnight. The 2015 accounts for An Garda Síochána state 73 contracts breached public procurement guidelines. This issue was raised at the Committee of Public Accounts by Deputy Catherine Connolly in July 2017 and the director of finance for the Garda, Mr. Michael Culhane, replied: "I accept that the 73 number is high, but we are actively addressing all of those issues and working with the Office of Government Procurement." Let us fast forward to the 2016 Garda accounts which were released in September 2017, according to which 94 contracts breached public procurement guidelines. Things had got worse, not better. What is going on? What is the Office of Government Procurement doing when the director of finance for the Garda says the force is working with that office? What does that mean? These are questions that need to be answered. How can one company be treated so differently? Who has benefited and who was pulling the strings? Does the Government have the appetite to hold the decision makers to account?

Raising issues about the dysfunctional nature of An Garda Síochána has become a little like shooting fish in a barrel. There was a time when it was sacrosanct here not to challenge it and we were ridiculed for doing so. Now it has become a popular sport. Will the Taoiseach tell us when will all of this change? There are so many aspects of An Garda Síochána that remain dysfunctional. Will he change things? How and when will the Government do so?

I acknowledge that there have been irregularities in Garda finances. We saw it very evidently in the financial affairs of the training college in Templemore and we have seen it on a number of occasions in the non-collection of fees and fines. We see it in irregularities in how contracts are tendered for and awarded. We are in the process of implementing a significant programme of Garda reform. It involves, for example, the establishment of the Policing Authority, which holds the Garda to account in public. It also involves greater civilianisation of the organisation by bringing people into it who are experts in human resources, finance and all corporate governance functions. It involves the Commission on the Future of Policing, which is now doing its work.

The Taoiseach is avoiding the questions asked.

We await its report. We will have the recruitment of a new Garda Commissioner and I intend that he or she should be able to come into and be a broom in the force and also bring people with him or her to change the organisation from the top. That is the only way it can be changed.