The board of the Health Service Executive has abandoned the further roll-out of Ppars, the controversial computerised payroll and human resources system for the health service.
Instead it has decided it wants a different computer system, with a broader range of functions, put in place to manage payroll and human resources for its huge workforce.
The Department of Finance has been asked, as a matter of urgency, to look at the new system and see if it can give it the go-ahead.
The roll-out of Ppars was suspended in November 2005 by the HSE's chief executive, Prof Brendan Drumm, amid concerns at escalating costs.
More than €130 million had been spent on the project which was operating in three health service regions and in St James's Hospital, Dublin, only.
It was originally intended to serve 17 agencies under the former health board system and was expected to cost about €9 million.
There were also technical problems with the system. It emerged in 2005 that one employee in the northwest had been paid €1 million in error by the system.
A HSE spokeswoman claimed that the new computer system the HSE wanted installed would incorporate some of the Ppars (personnel, payroll and related systems) software and therefore the controversial system was not being entirely abandoned.
The board of the HSE wants to advance the introduction of a comprehensive national human resources management information and payroll system that will enable the organisation to manage its resources better, she said.
"It will now go to an independent peer review process to be carried out under the aegis of the Department of Finance. The board requested that this review be conducted as a matter of urgency," the spokeswoman added.