The Department of Social and Family Affairs "completely underestimated" the cost and scale of a recently introduced pension scheme, which paid out €210 million in its first three years, the Comptroller and Auditor General has found.
The scheme, introduced in June 2000, made it easier for people aged over 66 to qualify for the State pension, extending the benefit to anyone who had 260 full-rate social insurance contributions paid, at least one of which dated before 1953.
The Department estimated that 3,000 people would qualify for the new payment at a full-year cost of €8.9 million. In fact, 27,562 people qualified out of 43,804 applications received by August 2003. The cost was €26.1 million in 2000, €70.7 million in 2001 and €113.1 million last year. This excluded €1.6 million in extra administrative spending.
The Department blamed the underestimate primarily on its failure to anticipate the influx of claims from persons resident abroad.
Four-fold rise in cost of courthouse works
The estimated cost of refurbishing Cork Courthouse rose more than four-fold between 1995 and 2003, according to the C&AG report. Expressing concern at delays in getting the project under way, as well as the costs incurred, the Comptroller noted that, since the initiative was first mooted, its estimated cost had escalated from €6.35 million to €26.5 million. Refurbishment is not now due to be completed until October 2004.
Explaining the miscalculations, the accounting officer of the Department of Justice, Equality and Law reform said the initial estimate had been "very provisional". Delays arose because of dissatisfaction within the Courts Service with the original plans, which were drafted by Cork City Council.
The report noted the Court Service secured a €761,842-a-year lease in May 2001 on a property at Camden Quay, from where it is currently operating.
The sum represented "a three-fold increase on the rental element of the lease agreed two years earlier".