Hanafin insists nothing wrong with Nasa trip
Health Minister Mary Harney and Social and Family Affairs Minister Mary Hanafin yesterday insisted there was nothing improper about their visits to Florida to inspect relationships built up with organisations like the NASA space agency as part of the Fás Science Challenge project.
It emerged earlier this week that Foreign Affairs Minister Micheál Martin, Agriculture junior minister Tony Killeen and former minister of state at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment Michael Ahern also visited Florida as guests of Fás over a three-year period.
However, Fás yesterday failed to provide information in response to a request for more details of the actual visits by the five ministers.
A spokesperson for the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, referred all these queries about ministerial visits to Florida to Fás
The Fás management team will appear before the Dáil public accounts committee (PAC) on Thursday.
The activities of former director of corporate affairs at Fás, Greg Craig, who was suspended from his job last Wednesday, remain the main focus of the inquiry.
Among the questions still to be answered are:
Did former Fás director general, Rody Molloy, resign of his own volition?
Did Mr Molloy have any role in the decision to suspend Greg Craig?
For what reasons was Mr Craig suspended?
Why was Mr Craig only suspended last Wednesday – four years after concerns were first raised about expenditure in his division?
What disciplinary action was taken against Mr Craig last year?
Why was he allowed retain his position as director of corporate affairs following that action?
Why was Mr Craig short-listed for promotion earlier this year given he was the subject of a major three-year investigation and disciplinary action in 2007?
Why did Mr Molloy show Mr Craig a copy of an internal audit investigation prior to the decision to initiate a disciplinary inquiry against him?
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