The chairman of the Oireachtas’s public spending watchdog has criticised the prior management of County Cork’s vocational education and asked why board members of the time remain in their positions today.

Over €400,000 may have to be written off by the Limerick and Clare Education Training Board (ETB) as a result of weaknesses in the control of capital projects by the former County of Limerick VEC.

A Co Cork educational centre for early school leavers made inappropriate payments to staff and students, an audit by the State’s spending watchdog found.

The Department of Education has said it can find no evidence that Wexford VEC got permission before signing a lease for a new headquarters which has cost taxpayers €420,000.