The former senior health service official who was the "lead health board chief executive" on the development of the PPARS computer project is not expected to give evidence before a Dáil committee which is holding hearings into the controversy.
The Dáil Public Accounts Committee had invited the former chief executive of the North Western Health Board, Pat Harvey, to appear before it to discuss the project.
However, committee chairman Michael Noonan said he understood that Mr Harvey had indicated that he would not be attending the hearing, which takes place today.
Mr Harvey now works in the private sector.
It is considered unlikely that the committee will seek to invoke powers to compel him to attend.
The former secretary general of the Department of Health Michael Kelly, the current secretary general Michael Scanlan and the chief executive of the Health Service Executive Prof Brendan Drumm are to attend the hearing.
The committee will draw on a report into the PPARS controversy produced before Christmas by the Comptroller and Auditor General John Purcell.
PPARS, the computerised payroll and human resources system for the health service was initially estimated to cost €9 million. However, more than €130 million has so far been spent on the project.
The comptroller, in his report, strongly criticised the way in which the PPARS project was managed and delivered.
He found there had been a considerable escalation in the cost of the project and that time had been allowed to slip; that it was delivering fewer functions than had been envisaged, and the manner in which external consultants were engaged was unsatisfactory.
