Irish Rail joins the unedifying list of State bodies which have mismanaged large technology projects. The board of the company has sought to end a €30 million and counting contract for a traffic management system.
Irish Rail says the system failed safety tests and the final decision about its future rests with the National Transport Authority. Leaving aside the apparent waste of taxpayers’ money, it is in no one’s interest to press ahead with a project that is unsafe.
That said, the problems at Irish Rail are of a piece with those elsewhere in the public sector, including a €6.7 million IT platform for the Arts Council which went over budget and is being scrapped.
Others include a finance and human resources management system for RTÉ which was only partially implemented and wrote off €3.6 million. The Residential Tenancy Board’s registration platform was roughly €5 million over budget and more than two years late. The Department of Education’s common finance platform was also €3 million over budget.
READ MORE
With several very large technology projects under consideration – including the digitisation of health records – there is a need to review how the State goes about procuring these projects.
There are a number of common failings, including significant changes being sought after a project has started. This is a common feature of large IT projects, but the particular difficulties State bodies encounter in this regard are attributed to a lack of in-house expertise due to difficulty in recruiting and retaining IT staff.
Other factors also perversely encourage State bodies to underestimate costs and delivery times, including politicians’ penchant for large, eye-catching projects.
By contrast, the Courts Service’s low-key incremental project for a €3.57 million unified case management system for criminal cases remains on budget, for the moment.
Lessons can and must be learned from Irish Rail and other State bodies’ failings before significant funds are committed to future technology projects.
