A shelf company was paid €2 million by the Health Services Executive for its work on a controversial payroll system, it was claimed tonight.
Blackmore Group Assets Limited was one of 14 companies which was used by the HSE to recruit specialist staff for the PPARS project.
Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny said he had established that the company was not registered in Ireland or Britain and that it had used a privately owned trust company in Guernsey to bill the HSE.
"According to the reply (to a Dail question), Blackmore is located in England and received 1,968,982 euro in respect of the recruitment of seven staff, the largest amount received by external recruitment firms."
Mr Kenny said Blackmore was a shelf company - one that has been created but has never previously traded.
Its memorandum and articles can be bought "off the shelf". Mr Kenny called for an investigation to establish how a shelf company could be considered to comply with the normal public procurement procedures.
He also wanted to know if the correct taxation rules were being applied to Blackmore.
The original estimate for the PPARS payroll and personnel system in 1998 was €9 million, but it had cost an estimated €160 million, mainly in staff and consultants' fees, by the time it was suspended last month.