Former Fás head should 'pay back money to exchequer'

GOVERNMENT BACKBENCHER Margaret Conlon has called on former Fás director general Rody Molloy to repay his severance package to the State.

Ms Conlon, FF TD for Cavan-Monaghan, said she held no brief for anybody involved in wrongdoing and would not condone it. "And, in the case of Rody Molloy, what he did was wrong," she added. "It was abhorrent and immoral and I believe he should do the right and honourable thing now and pay back the money to the exchequer." Fás, she said, had a huge budget and blew part of it. "Can anybody tell me: how can a car go missing? It beggars belief."

She asked how a company could spend hundreds of thousands of euro on a television advertisement and then not bother broadcasting it. Speaking during a resumed debate on a Labour private member's motion criticising the Government's handling of the Fás controversy, Ms Conlon said the Oireachtas had to be seen to lead by example.

She believed the forthcoming budget provided Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan with an ideal opportunity to radically assess all expenses, packages and remunerations.

"The reality is that, unfortunately, the real victims are the many unemployed who see this waste and who might see Fás as their step to upskilling and reskilling themselves," she added.

Labour's Mary Upton said it was clear there had been a serious breakdown and decay within the upper echelons of Fás, leading to the astoundingly profligate spending and numerous wasteful acts which were tarnishing the reputation and legacy of the organistion.

"This culture of entitlement, which seems to exist in the rarefied air of some semi-State bodies, needs to change," said Ms Upton.

"How can the Government tell people on social welfare, or hard-pressed public servants, that they have to take the pain when they see €600,000 being spent on a television advertisement that was never aired?"

Fine Gael's Leo Varadkar praised the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) for its role and expressed his disgust with the Government and the Fás executives "who shamelessly continue to hold their jobs". He referred to "those in the media who received hospitality from Fás and continue to write well of Fás and write ill of members of the PAC".