The Labour spokeswoman on finance, Ms Joan Burton, claimed that political responsibility had to be accepted in the breaching of EU or Government procurement rules in the provision of contracts for special EU meetings.
Yesterday, The Irish Times reported that multiple breaches of the guidelines were highlighted in a new report to the Minister of State for Finance, Mr Tom Parlon, by the PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) consultancy.
Ms Burton said the consultants' conclusions were quite shocking. "This report raises very serious questions for the minister in charge, Mr Tom Parlon, who must accept ultimate responsibility for what can only be described as very serious lapses in the OPW operation in Dublin Castle."
It was not some trivial matter, but a clear and systematic breach of the principles which should govern the State's approach to doing business with the private sector. "What confidence can private firms, seeking to do business with the OPW or other State agencies, have that they, too, are not being victimised by the failure to implement proper procurement procedures?"
Ms Burton said it was also clear from the report that the last-minute decision of the Government to substantially increase the number of EU presidency events, had created pressures on the OPW and encouraged corner-cutting and the bypassing of normal procedures.
The Minister of State for Education, Ms Síle de Valera, replying on behalf of Mr Parlon, said that in the interest of giving a speedy and open public response, following receipt of the report, the Minister had mad copies available on Wednesday to the media and to Ms Burton and other members of the House.
"The Minister of State is satisfied that he has acted appropriately, reasonably and in an open and fair way in the manner in which he has handled the release of the report." She said the issues which were the subject of the report were first reported in the media in December 2003.
"It was only subsequent to this reporting in the newspaper, and when the issues were already in the public domain, that the matter was raised in the House by Ms Burton. In the light of his attention being drawn to the matters in question through the newspaper articles, the Minister of State initiated an independent investigation of the matter.
"The examination was already underway when the matter was raised in this House through parliamentary questions tabled by Ms Burton and answered by the Minister of State on February 17th, 2004," said Ms de Valera.
