Outrage as PAC is denied access to MediaLab info
Chairman of the PAC and former Fine Gael leader Michael Noonan said he was extremely concerned at the “unprecedented” situation.
The Government poured €35 million into the failed high technology scheme - a pet project of Taoiseach Bertie Ahern - before it went into voluntary liquidation in January.
Documents relating to severance pay deals for its four chief executives, staff levels and wages have repeatedly been requested by the Comptroller General and the Department of Communication, Marine and Natural Resources.
Socialist TD Joe Higgins said: “I suspect this is a cover-up for a massive rip off of taxpayers.”
The Comptroller General’s report into the project said he had been “refused” the documents while trying to investigate, among other things, average pay rates at MediaLab of €76,000.
Brendan Tuohy, secretary general of the Communications Department, which had Government responsibility for the MediaLab venture, said he would again request the information.
MediaLabEurope was a collaboration between the State and Boston-based Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to set up a university-level research and education centre focused on digital media.
TDs questioned why U2 members Bono and The Edge had been invited on to the board of MediaLab.
“It wasn’t just about technology, but about creativity,” Mr Tuohy replied.
He added the decision had been taken to pull the plug on MediaLab “as it was burning costs at the rate of about half a million a month”.
The Comptroller General said: “I think it would have been reasonable for the State to incorporate review milestones into the agreement rather than be locked into the whole amount for four years regardless of what happened,” he told the committee.
David Hughes, the liquidator for MediaLab, told the Irish Examiner: “I was amenable to providing such information as I have available to me to the members on the basis that they would observe the confidential and personal nature of the information.
“Mr Tuohy was asked to clarify certain inaccuracies in that respect contained in the Comptroller and Auditor General’s report and he was invited to provide a copy of my solicitors letter to the Public Accounts Committee,” he said.
