A new information technology (IT) system to facilitate students in applying for State education grants may not be operational until 2029, despite work on it starting in 2015, the Dáil Committee of Public Accounts has been told.
Secretary general of the Department of Further and Higher Education Colm O’Reardon said an initial project to upgrade grant application software was established in 2015 was terminated in 2021.
He said a new project was now being initiated, taking on board lessons learned from the previous experience, to develop a grant application system to a modern standard.
He said €3.8 million had been spent on the initial project, of which €1.15 million “had no enduring value”.
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He told Cathy Bennett of Sinn Féin that some of the work could be brought into subsequent developments.
O’Reardon said about 115,000 people apply for student grants every year within a fairly condensed period of time, “so it is important that we have the best system”.
Department assistant secretary Keith Moynes said cumulatively about €6.4 million had been spent between the two projects to date.
He said the new IT system for grant applications was scheduled to become operational in 2029.
Fianna Fáil TD Séamus McGrath said it was “staggering” that it would take 14 years to develop an IT system.
Separately, Skillnet Ireland, which receives about €50 million annually from the Department of Further and Higher Education to support training and development of workers in different sectors of the economy, said it had already started investigations into one particular contracting authority before allegations were received in 2023 under a protected disclosure.
Skillnet Ireland chief executive Mark Jordan said he could not discuss the particular organisation or the business network it operated. Committee chairman John Brady of Sinn Féin said his information was that it was “sustainable Skillnet”.
Jordan told the committee the protected disclosure in 2023 was focused on one particular organisation, which was a legal entity that was promoting more than one Skillnet network. He said overall it had received about €2.4 million over several years.
Asked by Brady about issues Skillnet had identified before receiving the protected disclosure, Jordan said: “The issues were twofold; one was in relation to market demand and performance, where we do not see expenditure and therefore the organisation is not expending the funds and therefore not attracting income as well and activity and the key performance indicators are not being delivered. The other issue was around what we would describe as management capability and overall governance. We were concerned with some of the issues we were seeing in our close day-to-day monitoring. In terms of the reporting of transactions and the type of programmes being delivered and initiatives. That was caught within our own governance processes.”
Jordan said Skillnet began identifying problems about April or May in 2023, a couple of months before the protected disclosure was received. He said Skillnet had intensified its engagement with the organisation concerned and had withheld or suspended some grants.
Separately, the committee was told by the Department of Education that about €1.3 billion had been spent on modular buildings for schools between 2021 and 2025.
Labour Party TD Eoghan Kenny said the department was moving away from bricks and mortar and towards long-term modular accommodation.
