Fás fund paid out €4.5m to two unions

A MASSIVE €4.5 million was paid out to SIPTU and ICTU from the misspent Fás training package which has caused the European Commission to withhold €57m in social funding.

However, the main union involved has said the benefits it received from this training fund, the Competency Development Programme (CDP), had nothing to do with its vociferous defence of the continued existence of Fás after news of Europe’s actions broke.

At the weekend Jack O’Connor, president of SIPTU and the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, said Ruairí Quinn of the Labour Party was “completely wrong in his call for closing down Fás”.