PPARS debacle - In the private sector, heads would roll

THE computer debacle at the centre of the health service gets ever worse judging by the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General on the PPARS project.

Not only was the project rudderless, it experienced such cost escalation and time slippage that the bill by the end of this year is projected at a whopping €195 million.

For a system estimated in 1998 at €9m, based on a three-year deadline, seven years later the time and cost overruns in putting the health service pay and personnel data system in place can only be described as mind boggling.