Expensive consultants the norm, says Harney

TÁNAISTE Mary Harney conceded last night that hiring expensive consultants had become the “norm” for Government departments.

She was speaking ahead of this morning’s decision by the Health Services Executive to suspend its botched €166 million payroll system (PPARS), whose escalating costs have been driven by what the Government yesterday conceded were “excessive” consultancy fees.

Meanwhile, the Impact trade union has said the issuing of 200,000 doctor-only medical cards cannot proceed until agreement is reached with its members on the extra work involved.

In a shock announcement last night, the union says it warned the Health Service Executive six months ago that the system for assessing and processing applications from the public would have to be properly funded before it could go ahead.

Kevin Callinan, general secretary of the Impact health division, said there was a huge volume of extra work involved.

The HSE Employers’ Agency said there was no justification for any further delay in the issuing of the cards and that assurances on providing the necessary resources for the operation of the scheme had been given.

Just last week, the Executive and the Irish Medical Organisation reached agreement to allow the medical card scheme to proceed.

Facing a second day of unrelenting opposition attacks over the spiralling costs of PPARS, Ms Harney told the Dáil last night that she was concerned at the “extraordinary and excessive” fees paid to outside consultants, particularly Deloitte and Touche.

She echoed the climbdown of Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, who yesterday accepted Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny’s contention that the amount paid to Deloitte had been excessive.

Fine Gael estimates Deloitte has garnered fees of up to €50m since October 2002. Mr Ahern yesterday told the Dáil that €36m of the €56m earmarked to complete the roll-out of PPARS by March 2006 would be “consultancy fees to Deloitte & Touche and others”.

But that is unlikely to happen now. The HSE’s board meets this morning to consider chief executive Professor Brendan Drumm’s recommendation to suspend PPARS’s roll-out pending a complete re-evaluation of the project. Government sources indicated last night that the board is certain to put the project on hold.

It follows the emergence last night of a damning letter from the chief executive of St James’s Hospital raising “monumental concerns regarding the performance, expectations and capacity of the system”.

The June 2005 letter from John O’Brien - now a key member of Prof Drumm’s executive team in the HSE - lists a litany of problems associated with PPARS at his hospital.

He instances one incident where 150 employees were incorrectly paid, and contends the problem arose because the PPARS team made changes in “an uncontrolled fashion and without prior communication with St James’s”.

Elsewhere, Mr O’Brien states: “The hospital is now unwilling to continue with an arrangement which clearly threatens its basic functioning, its ability to meet its fiduciary accountability obligations and its credibility and relationships with its workforce.”

FG leader Mr Kenny, who obtained the letter, said it “completely blows out of the water the attempts by the Taoiseach to defend the abysmal handling and execution of the PPARS IT system”.

In the Dáil yesterday, Labour leader Pat Rabbitte berated the Taoiseach for refusing to accept that there had been a “monumental cock-up, a Niagara of waste of taxpayers’ money”.

He accused Mr Ahern of trying to “stonewall” his way out of the crisis.

Ms Harney accepted last night that the escalating costs of PPARS was attributable to staff costs and excessive consultancy fees.