Taoiseach would not defend 'profligate' spend

TAOISEACH BRIAN Cowen said he would not stand over "any profligate spending or any spending that is unauthorised" in Fás.

"I don't believe that there were items of expenditure here which should have been incurred," he added. "That is clear."

Mr Cowen said that the Tánaiste Mary Coughlan had asked that there be a further investigation into management systems to ensure that if there was any wrongdoing it would be found out. The agency's corporate services were also being investigated.

"That process is in place and both the chairman and chief executive were anxious that it would take place . . . that we would get to the bottom of any issues that need to be addressed," he added.

Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny said it was now perfectly obvious there was something radically wrong in Fás.

The agency had expenditure of €1 billion at its disposal, he said. "Since the latest revelations have come to public knowledge, I have to say that my own office has been flooded with claims . . . I do not know whether they are valid or not . . . but, certainly, they are coming from most unusual sources," he added.

Mr Kenny said investigations by the fraud squad and Comptroller Auditor General were under way, along with one ordered by Tánaiste Mary Coughlan and the Public Accounts Committee (Pac).

Mr Kenny recalled that the Taoiseach had said in June that he held chief executive Rody Molloy "in the highest regard, and whose integrity I would defend at all times".

He said that an area in Florida had been described on the internet "as one of the more affordable vacation spots in all of Florida . . . there is never a lack of exciting things to do and see in and around Cocoa Beach".

He asked Mr Cowen whether he considered it appropriate that a sum of $400 (€300) of Irish taxpayers' money should be spent on some person in a nail bar in west Cocoa Beach. He also asked whether the identity of the person who spent the money was known to Mr Cowen.

The Taoiseach replied that he did not know who the person was.

Labour leader Eamon Gilmore said that this year Fás registered 6,000 fewer apprentices than it had two years ago. Next year, the situation was going to be worse.

Apprenticeship, said Mr Gilmore, was the core business of Fás, and he thought that many young people who could not get an apprenticeship or were in one that they could not finish, were going to ask themselves: "What on earth were the top brass in Fás doing looking at the national space centre in Florida?"

Mr Gilmore asked whether "we have apprentice astronauts or something, or were they in the nail bar trying to register apprentices for carpentry?" The Taoiseach, he said, did not have any sense of the public anger which existed about the extravagance involved.

Mr Cowen said he understood the legitimate concern and anger expressed by people about some of the issues brought to public attention in recent days.

"It is an issue which we have to get to the bottom of and have accountability for. That process is in place," he added.

Mr Gilmore asked whether the Taoiseach had made any inquiries on whether "this kind of carry-on'' was going on anywhere else in State agencies or the public sector.

Mr Cowen said he was not aware of any other agency which had a similar issue before it.