Minister under pressure over government spending on a computer system for the health service.
Speaking on News at One, Tánaiste and Minister for Health Mary Harney said that the P-PARS computer system was tasked with an almost impossible job to make sense of thousands of different work practices, grade structures and rosters. She said that the system will be scrapped if it does not work effectively.
Criticism continued in the Dáil where the Fine Gael opposition leader Enda Kenny questioned the Taoiseach on a spend of €150 million on what he describes as a botched project.
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said that the Health Service Executive does not intend to dump the system and is looking for a way to get it working as it should.
The Labour Party published a document titled 'Another Year, Another Excuse' which claiming the Tánaiste's first year as Minister for Health had been a series of failures, missed opportunities and broken promises. Speaking in the Dáil, Labour Party TD Liz McManus asked the Taoiseach,
When are you going to get your act together? When are you going to stop squandering money?
Bertie Ahern defended the Tánaiste, describing the excellent reforms she had introduced to improve the situation for people on medical cards.
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 4 October 2005. The reporter is David McCullagh.
