The Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, has told the Dáil that €116m had been spent on the controversial computer payroll system in the health service up to the end of last year.
He said it was estimated that it would cost another €50m to complete the scheme.
Speaking during leaders questions in the Dáil, Mr Ahern said the computer system would not be dumped.
Mr Ahern said the Health Service Executive was carrying out a review of the system to see if it could be made compatible with the health services.
Earlier, the Tánaiste and Minister for Health said the computer payroll system at the health service had been asked to do 'an impossible job' of bringing coherence to a 'jumble' of different pay scales and work practices.
Mary Harney said she had told an Oireachtas committee in July that she was having the P-PARS system reviewed, and if it was appropriate to continue with it they would, but if it was not, then they would hold their hands up.
Opposition parties have intensified their attacks on the Government over the failings of the payroll system.
Earlier, a spokesman for Ms Harney said P-PARS was an issue for the Health Service Executive and not the Department of Health.
The Labour Party spokesman on Health, Liz McManus, said the Government could not pass the buck on to the HSE, which she said was established by Ms Harney and that Ms Harney must take political responsibility.
Ms McManus said the scale of waste involved beggared belief, as €150m could build a medium sized hospital or provide an extra 150,000 medical cards.
Kenny cites 'gross incompetence'
The Fine Gael leader, Enda Kenny, described the overspending on the payroll system as the 'daddy of them all'.
Speaking on RTÉ Radio’s Morning Ireland, Mr Kenny said P-PARS was originally costed in 1998 at €8.8 million and that, by this year, €150m of the public's money had been spent on something that did not work.
Mr Kenny said €70m of this amount had been paid on external consultancy fees alone.
He also cited the Comptroller and Auditor General's report last year which said the system was going to take €100 million more to roll out fully.
He said the system appeared to be rotten to the core and was an example of reckless spending and of gross incompetence on the Government's part.
Drumm seeking review
The Chief Executive of the HSE, Professor Brendan Drumm, has sought a review of the system and will recommend a halt to any further expansion of it to the HSE board at a meeting in two days' time.
The concerns about the system's effectiveness and value for money have put its future in doubt.
P-PARS was to handle the salaries for more than 100,000 employees in the health service but has never fully been used.
It has been problematic, mistakenly paying one employee €1m in a salary transfer.
