A Government information technology project which was to provide a one-stop online shop for all Government services has already cost nearly double its original budget and is two years behind schedule.
More than €18 million has been paid to consultants for work on the Reach project, which was to provide an online portal for Government services. It was due to start by 2003, but various technical and financial difficulties, including concerns from the Department of Finance about the use of outside consultants, have caused serious delays.
To date no additional online Government services have become available to the public from the project on its main portal and website, www.reachservices.ie.
At present the Reach website provides a log-in registration service, basic information and links to other Government services and State agency websites. The project's main aim is to create a public services system to enable all Government services to be provided securely online from a single access point, using one log-in.
There are no plans to provide additional new online services directly through the site, although the technology developed on the project is to be used in other State websites. The project, which has been allotted €31 million in public funding since it began in 2000, has cost €26 million to date, including €18 million to outside consultants, which have included Cap Gemini and Bearing Point.
Eleven civil servants have been seconded to Reach to manage and oversee the work of an estimated 30 consultancy staff who have been working on the project in the last 12 months.
The original budget for the project was just under €15 million, but the project had to be radically redesigned in 2003 following concerns it would not succeed.
The Department of Finance also raised concerns about the number of consultants working on the project, at the time.
Yesterday the project, called the Public Service Broker, was raised in the Dáil by Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny, who questioned the benefit of the project, which he said had been allocated €31 million in public funding. "We do at least have a functioning website with several useful links to other websites," he said. "But at a cost of €31 million one must conclude that even if it is a good website, it is not a great one."
Yesterday the Department of Social and Family Affairs defended the project and said the technology developed under the project would enable the roll-out of the online services to the public. It would provide secure access to services provided online by the Government in the future, through a registration system for public users.
The spokesman said the project had already resulted in savings through developing award-winning technology that allowed Government agencies automatically to pass documentation and information between each other securely.
The concentration of the project to date on technical aspects of systems is considerably different to the plans for the proposals outlined on the website of the Department of the Taoiseach.
"You will be able to access public services much more easily, often from the comfort of your own home 24 hours a day, seven days a week," the Department of the Taoiseach states about the project, which was to be running by the end of 2003.
The plans also included a telephone service to access Government services, similar to telephone banking, and the ability to access services, from social welfare to the Department of Agriculture, through mobile telephones, but the Government has yet to state when this will be delivered.
Meanwhile, it has emerged that Taoiseach Bertie Ahern's department has spent over €4.3 million on consultants since 2000.
The figures were given in a reply to a Dáil question from Labour TD Eamon Gilmore.