Civil servants 'scapegoats' for €14.8m project

CHARLIE McCREEVY and Joe Walsh were accused last night of allowing their civil servants take the blame for ignoring spending rules in fast-tracking €14.8 million for the Punchestown event centre.

Finance Minister Charlie McCreevy will splash out another €750,000 this weekend on showing off his pet project in his Kildare heartland to EU ministerial colleagues including €60,000 on hiring the facilities the taxpayer fully funded.

But despite suggestions that civil servants were being scapegoated last night, Mr McCreevy and his colleague, Agriculture Minister Joe Walsh, remained silent on the findings of a second damning report by a public finance watchdog on the controversial funding of the project.