THE DÁIL will next week debate a Labour Party motion condemning three current and former ministers for enterprise, trade and employment – Mary Coughlan, Mary Harney and Micheál Martin – for their failure to exercise appropriate political supervision of Fás and to prevent the wanton waste of taxpayers money.
Labour TD Róisín Shortall, who will move the motion, said today that while it was crucial that the Committee of Public Accounts should pursue its investigations into Fás, it was also important that the Dáil should have an opportunity to discuss the disclosures that have emerged to date.
The motion, which will be taken in private members’ time on Tuesday and Wednesday, also instructs the Tánaiste to examine all options for recovery of money paid to the former director general, Rody Molloy, over and above his statutory entitlement
Meanwhile, it has been established that the Department of Finance guidelines that were reportedly used when Mr Molloy’s severance package from Fás was being negotiated, appear to “strictly” rule out situations such as Mr Molloy’s.
Mr Molloy is said to have retired voluntarily as director general, having told the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment he would go early if he was treated “reasonably”. A number of parties have said the guidelines were referred to while Mr Molloy’s package was being negotiated, though a spokeswoman for the Tánaiste, Mary Coughlan, said last night that this was not the case.
Guidelines drafted by the Department of Finance in May 1998 cover the situation of chief executives of State companies retiring from the position. The guidelines state they were drafted as “there may be times when the board of a State-sponsored body and the relevant minister may conclude that it is in the best interests of the efficiency and effectiveness of the body concerned to terminate or not to renew the contract of an incumbent CEO”.
The guidelines outline packages that can be agreed without the consent of the department, though they state drafts of changes to pension schemes need to be cleared. The document states: “Application of the foregoing terms would be strictly conditional on completion of contract, unless the board, in agreement with the appropriate minister and the minister for finance, decides to terminate the CEO’s employment before the termination of the contract. It is not therefore appropriate to make such payments where the initiative for the termination of a contract comes from the CEO concerned.”