The waste of public money on computer systems that don't work, on consultants to pick the systems that don't work, and on more consultants to report on the work of those consultants, is obviously bad in itself. But it points to something far worse, writes Fintan O'Toole
Beyond the humdrum stupidity and incompetence, the various high-tech fiascos that have been discussed over the last week point to a cause for real alarm. The new Ireland has been shaped to a very large extent by information technology. IT is the force that has been unleashed and supposedly harnessed to reshape our society for the 21st century. And our rulers haven't a bull's notion what it is. Like the Sorcerer's Apprentice they have summoned up powers they simply don't understand.
In April 2002, the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, signed the preface to a report published by his department called the New Connections Action Plan. He told the nation that the impact of IT on governance was "bringing about the single-most dynamic shift in the public policy environment in the history of the State." He told us that "The development of e-government is also central to shaping how we evolve as an information society . . . Given its key infrastructural significance, progress with e-government is increasingly seen internationally as . . . a key determinant of national competitiveness."
Key, central, single most dynamic - this is the language of absolute priorities. A marker was being set down: judge us by how we deal with this stuff. If you actually read the report that followed, however, you would have felt immediately uneasy. It was awash with the kind of jargon and management-speak that is the infallible sign of a chancer: "there is growing acceptance of the need for a greater internal e-government focus on streamlining background processes, facilitating cross-organisational collaboration, continuing to develop an organisational culture with a user-centric focus, and achieving the full benefits from the substantial investments in technology across the public service." People who know what they're doing don't take refuge in this kind of babble. Bertie and the mandarins sounded awfully like virgins boasting about their sexual exploits.
And, of course, they were bluffing. Setting up a special cabinet committee on the information society, boasting about our "global leadership position" in high-tech industry and putting e- before every noun that moves, were just masks for cluelessness. Here is a brief summary of just some of the big IT projects sponsored by the Government: MediaLab Europe was established by Bertie Ahern as a "flagship project". It got €35 million of public money and the State also leased it for a nominal rent property that had cost €22.5 million . After four years, an outside review found that its progress towards meeting its objectives of cutting edge high-tech innovation "appeared to be zero or very close to it".
The Department of Social and Family Affairs set up a computerised Client Identity Service (CIS) in 2000 to manage the PPS number registration system. It didn't recognise "foreign" names so anyone who held one could be allocated a PPS number that was already in use. Fraudulently obtained PPS numbers could not be deleted, flagged or rendered unusable. This allowed more than one PPS number to be allocated to the same person on the same day.
The HMRS computer system installed in the Prison Service was so useless that it was completely abandoned last December.
The Department of the Environment ordered 6,315 electronic voting machines at a cost of around €50 million. It has now been officially announced that they will not be used in the next general election. Simply keeping them in storage is costing up to €1 million a year.
The introduction of penalty points for dangerous driving in October 2002 saved lives. But the positive effect gradually faded as it became clear that the Garda did not have a computer system that could handle the work. Our "global leadership position" in IT meant that our police were keeping the records by writing them down in ledgers like Dickensian clerks.
The Garda PULSE computer system, which has cost €61 million, is so bad that in many cases gardaí have reverted to writing charge sheets by hand.
In the health system, use of both the PPARs system, which cost €165 million, and the FISP system, which has already cost at least €30 million, has been suspended. Neither of them does the job it was supposed to do.
The roll-out of broadband, which every Government report has acknowledged as a critical measure of our status as a supposed global IT leader, has been pitifully slow, and we have fallen behind most of our competitors.
Back in 2002, the Taoiseach told us in the New Connections Action Plan that "Our engagement with the challenges and opportunities of (the IT) agenda is central to future economic and social development."
The State's contribution to that engagement has been to genuflect before the gods of IT, propitiate them with cartloads of money, and run away when they make angry spluttering noises.