NOTE: A previous version of this article said that “Codex” were the suppliers of the project. This was a typographical error that was meant to read “Codec”. This piece has been updated to correct this error.
The Government is facing accusations of deliberately withholding the revelation that the Arts Council squandered nearly €7 million on a failed IT project until after the general election, with one TD claiming voters were taken “for fools”.
“The Arts Council Annual Report 2023 highlighted overspend by the Arts Council on a digital transformation report,” Sinn Féin Arts spokesperson Joanna Byrne TD said in a statement.
“This was submitted to the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media as far back as last summer.
“The accounts within this report include notes from Comptroller and Auditor General noting an estimated loss of €5.3m, which now sits at €6.675m.
“This report notes that the Arts Council received sign-off from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform for this project, and kept the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media updated and informed throughout.”
Byrne added: “It is quite clear that the government sat on this report until after the General Election in another attempt to pull the wool over the eyes of voters, taking them for fools, with examination of the report only commissioned nine days ago on February 6th.”
Byrne further asked if the Department of Arts informed the Department of Public Expenditure, and whether other senior Ministers like Paschal Donohoe had been aware of “this latest shameful waste of taxpayers’ money?”
“The report also highlights a significant increase in costs; €9m on consultants, a jump from €1.4million previous year, and €30,000 wasted on scoping with a property consultant for a new HQ which never transpired,” she said.
“The Arts Council selected suppliers for the project such as Codec from the Framework Panel for ICT, as provided by the Office for Government Procurement. What else are we going to uncover when we look further under the bonnet of this government’s procurement processes?
“…In the dying days of the last government, we had the drip-feed of shocking levels of waste – €336,000 on a bike shed, €500,000 on private jet flights for Simon Harris, €1.4m on a security hut, €9m on phone pouches, and the biggest one of all, the €1.5 billion overspend on the Children’s Hospital.
“In the past number of weeks, we have since learnt of the €490,000 OPW wall at the WRC, and now this – a report documenting staggering levels of overspending that was clearly buried for political convenience ahead of the General Election. It stinks.
“What we have seen this week from government is crying faux outrage from the Tánaiste and Fine Gael leader Simon Harris. The public does not buy it.”
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) is now being asked to investigate the matter, with members of the opposition slamming the expenditure last week as a “needless waste of taxpayers’ money”.
Arts Minister Patrick O’Donovan has acknowledged governance failures within the Arts Council, stating that the organisation was unprepared for the scale of the project and lacked proper oversight. He has ordered an external review into the Council’s governance and culture, aiming to restore confidence in its financial management.
Tánaiste Simon Harris has also weighed in, calling the issue “absolutely alarming” and warning that breaches of the public spending code would not go without “consequences”. He cited multiple failures, including poor cost estimates, unauthorised contract extensions, and a failure to disclose financial breaches in governance reports. He insisted that both the PAC and the external review must get to the bottom of what went wrong.