Hanafin insists nothing wrong with Nasa trip

TWO Government ministers have defended their controversial visits to the US in recent years as guests of Fás amid growing controversy over expenditure of taxpayers’ money by the state employment agency.

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.