de paper: C&AG attacks management for integrated ticketing ‘fiasco’

[Colm Donoghue]

C&AG attacks management for integrated ticketing ‘fiasco’

By Shaun Connolly, Political Correspondent
THE State’s financial watchdog yesterday delivered a scathing verdict on the management of an integrated ticketing project for Dublin transport services which has swallowed over €9 million and delivered nothing.


Comptroller and Auditor General John Purcell said “heads should have been knocked together” early on in the project to stop it sliding so far behind schedule and over budget.

Costings for the Dublin system have spiralled from €29m to €42m and the scheme, which should have been launched in 2005, is three years behind schedule.




“By the end of 2005 €9.5m had been spent on the project without satisfactory progress being made.

“This was at least partly attributable to the way in which the project was being managed.

“Looking at the slow progress to date it is clear that governance of the project left a lot to be desired.

“In my opinion earlier positive action by way of knocking heads together might have helped put the project on a proper footing sooner and avoided at least some of the sum costs,” Mr Purcell told the Dáil’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC).

The Railway Procurement Agency (RPA) was tasked with organising the ticketing scheme in 2002 and was overseen by the Transport Department. Mr Purcell added the scheme had been dogged by confusion over role of the RPA and that “underlying tensions” between the authority and Dublin Bus did not help.

Green TD and PAC member Dan Boyle said Transport Minister Martin Cullen should accept responsibility for the “fiasco”.

“We have spent millions and millions and got nothing. Mr Cullen seems to have a Midas touch in reverse when it comes to this sort of project,” he said.

Mr Purcell added much of the delays had to do with the failure to decide on the future direction of the Dublin transport market.

The C&AG had earlier revealed that the CIÉ group of Dublin Bus, Bus Éireann and Iarnród Éireann was threatened with having its funding withheld because of its “perceived lack of commitment to the project”.

Transport Department officials said a close eye had been kept on the project and CIÉ had been written to in December 2005 warning that its performance was being closely monitored.