Govt website suspended in latest computer fiasco

The Government has suspended another computer project – a website – because it didn’t work properly, it emerged tonight.

Fine Gael claimed in the Dáil that a €3m one-stop-shop portal, launched by former Health Minister Micheál Martin amid a fanfare of publicity in 2004, was abandoned earlier this year.

Party leader Enda Kenny said: “The portal is not up and running because it doesn’t exist.

“It has disappeared into the same black hole as the e-voting, the PPARS, the Digital Hub, Punchestown and all of the others.”

Health Minister Mary Harney admitted that the project, which was worked on by IBM and Accenture firms, was suspended earlier this year because the technology wasn’t compatible.

The HSE re-tendered for a new ’unified website’ on September 30 with a two-week deadline for tenders.

She said: “Work on the portal was suspended by the HSE last February because it seemed the technology may not have been compatible.”

She said that surveys in the US had shown that only 28% of technology works on the first occasion.

“A tender for a smaller project costing less than €250,000 has been advertised,” she added.

Mr Kenny asked Ms Harney to investigate the short tender time and “clarify that this particular project is not written for any particular individual in mind”.

Ms Harney said that she had told the HSE that it must get approval from the Health and Finance departments before proceeding with the project.

“Any new IT project in the health area will have to go through a process of thorough evaluation,” she added.