Rose Conway-Walsh: Denounces 'Staggering' Government Financial Waste
Rose Conway-Walsh criticised widespread public-sector financial mismanagement in a parliamentary speech, listing specific costly contracts and calling for greater transparency and accountability. She thanked Independent Ireland for bringing the motion and demanded an end to excessive consultancy and opaque contracting.
Allegations of waste
She detailed a string of high-cost projects she described as examples of waste, including a 9 million phone pouch project, a 360,000 bike rack, an OPW wall, relentless overspending in the National Children's Hospital, modular homes costing 442,000 each, and a 125,000 scanner at the National Gallery. She said these examples are only the "tiny tip of the iceberg" of public money wasted.
Lack of transparency and oversight
She accused departments and agencies of hiding behind "commercial sensitivity" to prevent scrutiny, citing difficulty in accessing original contracts for jobs path. She said the public service lacks proper oversight and questioned who is in charge of controlling the overall cost of the civil service and public service.
Consultancy culture criticised
She highlighted the heavy use of consultants, citing the Department of Social Protection spending 1.4 million a week on IT consultancy. She argued that government policy has been made by external consultants and called for bringing that expertise in-house so it becomes properly accountable.
Calls for accountability and fairness
She noted that Deputy Farrell has proposed solutions and said spending practices must be tackled. She contrasted the scale of overspending with the intense scrutiny placed on individuals - sometimes "beyond the grave" - and said the inherent unfairness in the system must be corrected.
We publish thousands of recordings to make Irish politics transparent and resistant to manipulation. Spotted an error? Report it — together we are building a reliable archive of Irish politics.
I want to thank Independent Ireland for bringing forward this motion. It's a very important motion. The staggering list of financial mismanagement across multiple government departments and agencies is downright disgraceful and I think you will agree with me on this, Minister. We can give you every kind of example. People are really, really angry and they know that the cases that are being made public are only the tiniest tip of the iceberg because we all know of the other cases. But if you look at the ones that are public in terms of the 9 million phone pouch project, the 360,000 bike rack, the OPW wall, the relentless overspending in the National Children's Hospital, the modular homes with the price tag of 442,000, the scanner from the National Gallery of 125 grand. They are only a tiny minutia of the absolute waste of public money. And is it any wonder that the most thing you hear from people is that this government are a shower of wasters? And I don't say that derogatory, but I say it by the waste of money. People's hard earned taxpayers' money is absolutely disgraceful. And the lack of transparency and hiding behind commercial sensitivity. I mean we go back to jobs path even around that. Like we spent years trying to find out the original contract in that, the contracts that were given. Oh no, you can't see that because it's commercially sensitive. That is not good enough. And that has to, has to stop. As well, even if you look at that instance, you look at the displacement of the services that were already there. So you were displacing the LES, the local employment services, with jobs path. It makes no sense whatsoever and people aren't stupid. We hear the Department of Social Protection was spending 1.4 million a week on IT consultancy. That's one department. What's the total cost of what is going on in our civil service and our public service and who is in charge? I thought that the Department of Public Expenditure had a grip on this, had a hold on this. I held that portfolio between Maraid Haven and now Maraid Farrell. I was absolutely shocked at the lack of oversight, shocked, and I still remain shocked. Now Deputy Farrell has put forward a number of solutions again as we have continuously put forward into how all of this is tackled. But I want to contrast that. I want to talk about, just in the few seconds I have left, the contracting out and the consultancy. This country has been run by consultants, absolutely run. That is how government policy is made up, by consultants. That has to stop. We have to bring in that expertise into government to make it properly accountable. And then we contrast the overspending and the waste of money with people being scrutinised within an inch of their lives and indeed and sometimes being scrutinised beyond the grave in trying to get every sin back of them. There is an unfairness inherent within the system here and it has to be put right.
Thank you for downloading 🙏
If you publish this material on social media, we would be very grateful if you tagged VideoParliament. It helps us reach more people and keep building a transparent archive of Irish politics.
