€577,000 wasted on inadequate prison IT system

PRISON service bosses “took their eyes off the ball” as more than half a million euro was wasted on a computer system that could not do its job, TDs heard yesterday.

In the latest example of a Government IT upgrade that turned into a financial disaster, jails had to abandon a new civil service-wide operation because it could not process overtime and sick leave data.

The Dáil Public Accounts Committee heard how €577,000 was spent on the Human Resource Management System (HRMS) in prisons before it was abandoned after 14 months.