FÁS has agreed to pay €175,000 to one of its directors who claimed he had been used as a scapegoat by the agency.

Taoiseach Brian Cowen was warned about "questionable" expenditure at FAS in 2004 and 2006 - a period when the agency was involved in lavish expense spending, a newspaper report this morning claims.

The Government today appointed a new slimmed-down FÁS board of directors promising a root and branch overhaul of the scandal-hit state-training body.

Around 10 FAS workers face losing their jobs after new internal audits found evidence of misconduct.

FÁS chiefs are to resign en masse after revelations that millions of euro of taxpayers' money was overspent at the State training agency, it was revealed today.