Public sector heads should roll in PPS debacle

BEFORE an Oireachtas committee recently, Phil Hogan informed us that, “whereas the population of the State was 4.58 million, there were 7.2 million PPS numbers, a difference of 2.62 million”.

Readers will remember that the idea behind the PPS numbers was to provide a secure, verifiable ID system for the State. We were told that your PPS number would become more important than your home address in this digitally enlightened age.

This mismanagement of the State’s ID system has the potential to provide for 2.62 million fraudulent dole and medical card claims. You can be absolutely sure that when the system was being set up, no end of public money was thrown at it. Huge consultancy fees would have be paid, the best computer equipment purchased, endless contracts for outside IT companies signed off and, of course, ten times more people hired to run it than would ever be needed. How then did these civil servants make such an expensive, monumental cock-up ?

The answer lies in the civil service culture. The computer system doesn’t issue PPS numbers. The machines do what they are told by the civil servants operating them. But when the management structure responsible for the running of it is not accountable and the operators cannot be fired for stupid mistakes, who cares if there are 70 billion PPS numbers out there?

In response to this outrageous inefficiency, Joan Burton intends to introduce yet another ID card system, on top of the existing PPS one, at whatever that will cost. With respect minister, that does not solve the problem, rather it creates an opportunity for another similar one to be made. The PPS system can be fixed, but quite obviously not by the people charged to run it currently. Fire the lot of them for incompetence and draft in a team who are up to the job and will give value for taxpayer money. It happens in the private sector regularly.

John Mallon

Mayfield

Cork