Former WIT chair says he organised €4,200 flight

The former chairman of the Waterford Institute of Technology governing body said he organised and sanctioned a controversial €4,200 flight to Dublin for a visiting academic.

However, Redmond O’Donoghue, who chaired the board from 2003 to early last year, said concerns were never raised with him during that time about spending by college president Kieran Byrne’s office.

Mr Byrne’s appointment to a second 10-year term was rejected by the governing body, under a new chairman, in May last year after details of expenses totalling €3.7m since 2004 became public.