The National Transport Authority (NTA) has disputed a report suggesting it faces a €41 million cost overrun on its “next-generation” contactless ticketing system, which will allow passengers to tap their bank cards on buses, trains and the Luas.
A spokesman for the authority said the suggestion made in a Dáil Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report was “incorrect and without foundation”. He said the calculations seemed to be based on a “misinterpretation” of figures the Department of Transport shared with the PAC.
The new ticketing system is, in fact, “being delivered by the NTA within budget and is also on schedule”, he said.
The PAC report found that a number of key IT projects being undertaken by Government departments and State agencies were projected to run over budgets by more than €61 million. Among these was the NTA’s ticketing system, which the PAC said could now cost up to €269 million to deliver, amounting to an overrun of about €41 million.
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The PAC is understood to be seeking clarification following the NTA’s objection to the calculations.
Earlier Sinn Féin TD John Brady, chair of the PAC, said the cost overrun on this project, as set out in the committee’s report, was “particularly alarming”.
The report also revealed that a €3.6 million case management system project for the Garda ombudsman’s office was terminated following contractual issues.
It said the Department of Children’s affordable childcare scheme ICT project exceeded its original estimate by 49 per cent to reach a final cost of €10.6 million.
A Forensic Science Ireland project for the management of DNA samples that had an initial costing of €760,027 cost €2.7 million by the time it was completed last year, the committee was told by the Department of Justice.
“The original business case greatly underestimated the complexity of the project and resources required to deliver on requirements,” the department said.
The project team reported regularly during the three years when the project was being worked on, and the additional costs were “considered and approved,” the committee was told.
The report says a number of completed IT projects collectively overshot their budgets by about €11.5 million.
However, the report said overall spending was roughly in line with initial projections as underspending on some projects has offset overruns on others.
[ Why is it that IT projects do not come in on budget and on time?Opens in new window ]
The report found 34 projects had been completed with an overspend, while 33 ongoing projects were expected to result in an overspend.
The submitted material shows initial cost estimates frequently understate the complexity of the projects and that “scope expansion” was often the primary driver of overruns, according to the committee report.
“Completed projects generally stabilise, while in-flight projects remain volatile,” the summary of key patterns said. “Large, long-running programmes carry persistent risk.”
Overall, the report said, the findings highlight the importance of early realism, staged delivery and active oversight, particularly for high-value national systems.
“What has emerged is a deeply concerning pattern of consistent failings across government – gaps in expertise, weak oversight structures, poor project management and wholly inadequate initial cost estimates,” said Brady.
“The findings show that major ICT projects are repeatedly running over time and over budget, with insufficient accountability mechanisms in place.”
Brady said this would be “an area of continuous monitoring” by the committee.
