Coughlan denies being overruled for show of confidence in Fás
The opposition last night claimed the Government was “deeply divided” over the issue after one Fás board member, Niall Saul, claimed Brian Cowen blocked a statement when the Green Party threatened to pull out over the issue.
Chairman of the board, Peter McLoone, resigned from his position this week and the other board members are expected to do likewise in November.
Mr Saul told RTÉ radio yesterday: “As far as we were concerned, when the C&AG report came out, the minister indicated to us the situation was the same and she wanted us to continue on. It’s my understanding that [Green Party leader] John Gormley went to the Taoiseach and when Peter [McLoone] went to look for the statement he believed he was going to get into the public media it wasn’t forthcoming.
“So he read that to mean that for political reasons, which we can totally understand the Taoiseach has to deal with the reality of the political situation, there were more important things to hold the Government together for than the board of Fás.”
Ms Coughlan last night denied there was any intention to issue a statement expressing confidence in the board.
“There was no press release, we never intended to issue such a press release,” a spokesperson for the Tánaiste said.
Asked if the Taoiseach had instructed her on the issue, he said: “We hadn’t sanctioned or drafted such a statement so that wouldn’t have come to pass.”
Fine Gael spokesperson Leo Varadkar claimed that there were “deep divisions” in government on the issue and that Mr Cowen had “undermined” his Tánaiste.
“The Government is in disarray over how to handle Fás.
“Brian Cowen’s decision to overrule Mary Coughlan’s plans to publicly support Fás shows the Taoiseach does not have faith in the Tánaiste’s handling of the Fás crisis,” Mr Varadkar said.
Micheál Martin and Mary Harney – both former enterprise ministers – will be drawn into the controversy this week with a Dáil motion condemning them for their “failure to exercise appropriate political supervision of Fás and to prevent the wanton waste of taxpayers’ money”.
The motion being put forward by the Labour Party for debate on Tuesday and Wednesday will also demand that the former Fás director general Rody Molloy pay back his €1 million golden handshake.
