It would have been good if we didn't have prior experience to go on. IT programmes in individual hospitals are often overbudget and under perfoming. To do this with the whole country - chosen by politicians. Well you didn't have to be a genius to see where it wuld end up. It's the on thing about the 'ID Card and National Identity Database' programme that gives me hope - that it will be so costly, and so useless that after a few huge balls-ups that it'll collapse under it's own weight. Of course if you can tell me of a national IT programme that has gone smoothly, I'll owe you a drink.