Gardai investigating Fás complaint

Gardaí have confirmed they are investigating a complaint received from the State training agency Fás.

In a statement this evening, a Garda spokesman said the investigation was ongoing. He declined to comment on the nature of the investigation.

Earlier today Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny challenged the Taoiseach to tackle the Fás advertising and PR budget after claiming a senior executive was controlling advert placement.

According to Fine Gael, misuse in the employment authority's €9 million advertising and PR budget is shown in Freedom of Information (FOI) documents that the party requested after the publication of a Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report that criticised aspects of the use of Fás budgets.

Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny challenged the Taoiseach to tackle the Fás advertising and PR budget

In addition, from the documents supplied, it is apparent that some information has been withheld due to an ongoing Garda investigation, Mr Kenny said.

Mr Kenny, who raised the issue in the Dáil this morning, said the documents showed an executive placed most of the agency's ads himself, even though Fás retains an ad agency to do this work and was paying that ad agency a percentage fee for every ad placed.

“In one specific instance €100,000 of taxpayers’ money was spent on advertising in one local newspaper alone. This went completely against Fás's normal practice to advertise only in the national media."

“The documents also show that the executive in Fás believes that having control of this spend could influence how Fás was portrayed in the newspapers. In other words taxpayers’ money was being used to buy influence in newspapers for this quango."

Mr Kenny continued: “I would ask the Taoiseach, if he is really interested in securing savings on behalf of the taxpayer that this is the type of area that he should be targeting while trying to protect essential front line services.”

“With cuts now expected across the board on foot of Brian Cowen blowing the boom in four short years in finance one area that the Government should be looking to make savings in is the bloated and expensive range of agencies and quangos that have mushroomed under this Government."

A report from CAG John Purcell had criticised Fás for failing to achieve value for money in its dealings with its principal advertising agency, as well as misdirecting Fás funds on a website project.