A NUMBER OF TDs have slammed the “shambolic” spending by the Arts Council after it was revealed yesterday that €6.67 million was spent by the Council on a failed IT development project.

New Arts Minister Patrick O’Donovan has ordered an external review into all activities of the Arts Council as a result of the major spend on the failed project.

Tánaiste Simon Harris faced a wave of criticism from a number of opposition party TDs on the overspend during Leaders’ Questions today, with Labour’s Ivana Bacik proposing a Dáil debate on the matter.

“It appears that the entire management of this project was shambolic,” Bacik told Harris.

Bacik also criticised O’Donovan, who served as a Minister of State at the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform with responsibility for the Office of Public Works during the last Government.

Bacik claimed that O’Donovan had a “Midas touch” when it came to his departmental appointments, referencing OPW overspending on a security hut and Dáil bike shed last year.

“Now, weeks into his new job, we find out about this extraordinary and alarming spend of nearly €7 million on a failed IT project at the Arts Council,” Bacik said.

Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín also slammed the high cost of the failed Arts Council IT project, adding that the Government “is a consequence-free zone”.

“This government is an accountability-free zone when it comes to waste,” Tóibín said.

“The Arts Council incinerated €7 million in State funding, and we have nothing to show for it. I honestly believe that there’s a culture of waste that is coming from the top here.”

‘Serious questions’

Harris told the Dáil that he was left concerned in “his confidence in the overall governance structure and systems within the Arts Council” following the news of the failed IT project.

“I’m sure there’ll be very serious questions to be asked for of the Arts Council, because breaching the public spending code can’t be a consequence free zone – it simply can’t,” Harris said.

The spend was a “very flagrant breach” of public spending code, he said.

The Tánaiste added that the issue was “absolutely alarming, quite frankly”, explaining that the Arts Council is responsible for “a very significant budget” which has significantly increased in recent years.

It is not yet clear if the Taoiseach, Tánaiste or Arts Minister Patrick O’Donovan have made contact with Catherine Martin, who was Minister for Arts during the Arts Council IT project overspend, since the news broke yesterday.

In a statement, the Arts Council said that the organisation greatly regrets that the project was not complete, and said that it is now engaging with its contractors with a “view to seeking legal redress”.

Speaking to RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, Minister for Arts and Culture Patrick O’Donovan said this morning that his priority is “to examine the culture of governance, oversight, adherence to the public spending code” by the Arts Council. 

“It’s the second big issue that our department has faced, the other being RTÉ, and it is a cause of huge annoyance and anger within government and certainly from my perspective as well,” O’Donovan said.