Coughlan U-turn on department statement supporting Fás board

TÁNAISTE Mary Coughlan has admitted a statement supporting the board of Fás was drawn up within her department in the wake of damning findings on the agency by the Comptroller and Auditor General.

This contradicts her earlier comments when she said no such statement or press release had existed before the board indicated it would resign en masse.

Answering a parliamentary question tabled by Leo Varadkar last night the Tánaiste conceded a statement was prepared but not released.

“A draft note was prepared in my department in order to convey a desire to ensure an orderly transition to the new board structure as provided for in the recently published Labour Services Amendment Bill, 2009. It was not issued as a press statement,” she said.

On Friday her department flatly denied any statement supporting the board was written.

“There was no press release, we never intended to issue such a press release,” the department said.

However, outgoing members of the Fás board claimed at the height of the controversy they had received a copy of an intended statement. But this was withdrawn before it was published, they said.

Since then department officials went looking for this letter and found it.

It is understood it was prepared by a staff member within without the knowledge of Ms Coughlan.

The author of the statement has not been identified and it is now known who initiated the move. The unpublished statement was inspired by departmental communications with Fás after the agency sought support for its position. A copy was sent to the then board chairman Peter McLoone and other members.

It was only in recent days that the department discovered the letter, but it has not been able to trace its origins.

Both the Tánaiste and Taoiseach Brian Cowen have been adamant a statement of support was not withdrawn because Green Party leader Minister John Gormley had demanded it.

A spokesman for the Tánaiste said she could not have requested the letter be retracted because she did not know it was written to begin with. “We never requested or authorised such a statement so the question of withdrawing it was never an issue,” he said.

Boards member Niall Saul had said Ms Coughlan intended but the Taoiseach intervened at the behest of Mr Gormley.