GREG CRAIG, the executive who was at the heart of the scandal that led to the resignation in 2008 of the former managing director of Fás, Rody Molloy, has been told his contract is being terminated.
The former head of the corporate affairs division at Fás was told earlier this week of the decision. However he has the right to appeal and may go to the courts next week and seek an injunction.
A spokeswoman for Fás said she had no comment to make on the matter. Mr Craig, when contacted, said the matter was with his lawyers.
The Irish Timeshas seen documentation indicating that it was intended earlier this year that the authority would issue a public apology for how it had treated Mr Craig. A solicitor from the firm Matheson Ormsby Prentice was to help the two sides arrive at agreement on a level of financial compensation for Mr Craig, the documentation indicates.
This decision was arrived at following the completion of a report by the consultancy firm Mazars, into complaints made by Mr Craig about his treatment by the authority.
Among the matters addressed was a complaint by Mr Craig that medical details concerning him and his family had been leaked. The agency separately engaged a consultant to look into matters raised in a number of internal audit reports which had been critical of expenditure controls at the authority. Findings in this regard are understood to be the reason Mr Craig was given for the decision to seek to cease his contract with the authority.
The move on Monday came after a number of efforts by Mr Craig to show the Mazars report to parties outside Fás. He was being assigned to the Department of Social Protection and wanted to show the report to the secretary general of that department, according to a source with knowledge of the affair.
However the director general of Fás, Paul O’Toole, was not agreeable to this. Mr Craig then decided he wanted to show the report to Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn, who has responsibility for Fás.
In August Siptu wrote to Mr Quinn on Mr Craig’s behalf seeking a meeting with him. Later in the month the union wrote to Mr O’Toole saying that Mr Craig wanted to raise certain matters included in the Mazars report with the Minister.
It also said it wanted to invoke a section of the Labour Services Act introduced in the wake of the Fás controversy, and which provides certain protections for people in the public service who report misconduct.
Mr Craig told The Irish Timesin December 2008 that everything he did while head of the corporate affairs division was in pursuit of official policy and known to his superiors.