Computer systems ‘wasting taxpayers’ money’

THE Government was yesterday accused of wasting taxpayers’ money on elaborate computer systems that over-ran projected costs and which did not perform to the required standard.

As the Health Service Executive (HSE) defended the €120 million payroll system which embarrassingly put €1m into an employee’s account, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) issued a damning report on a forestry services system that cost over twice what was projected and took five times longer to install.

Yesterday the HSE insisted that a payroll system was “working well” and said “measures were put in place to ensure no repeat of the error”.