Calls for watchdog to vet State projects

FINE GAEL last night demanded the creation of a powerful Oireachtas watchdog committee able to sound alarm bells over potentially disastrous projects before taxpayers' money is wasted on them.

Front bench TD Bernard Allen insisted present arrangements were grossly inadequate as the Dáil and Senate could only vet spending retrospectively.

He called for the Public Expenditure Committee, which sat in the 1980s and was able to investigate projects as they were being planned, to be re-established with extra powers.

Mr Allen said such a system would make it much easier to avoid fiascos like the health service payroll computer network, PPARS, which is unable to do its job but is set to cost the nation €150 million.

"We need a committee that can examine projects with high public expense before they get off the ground so that alarm bells can be sounded if necessary," the FG foreign affairs spokesman said.

"If such a system had been in place in recent years, we would at least have had a much better chance of stopping projects like PPARS spiralling out of control.

"The committee would have the powers to investigate all major projects across Government departments and major IT investments, the area which seems to be producing the biggest problems at the moment," he added.

Mr Allen insisted such a system could have helped prevent the latest controversy surrounding a Government project which has rocketed in costs - the automated passport system.

He has called on Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern to explain how the project increased in price by 60% to €22 million and why a "royalty" on each passport produced is to be paid to the contractor.

"For each passport produced the contractor receives more than €7 from the State. Having spent almost €22 million on this new Automated Passport System, I would like the minister to clarify why the taxpayer must also pay a royalty to the contractor each and every time the new system is used," Mr Allen said.

A spokesman for Mr Ahern said: "The security requirements involved changed drastically after September 11 and needed to be upgraded significantly. That explains the increase in cost. The US Department of Homeland Security has praised the new Irish passport as a model international passport," he said.