PAC to probe €290k spend on chairman’s office

The Dáil’s public spending watchdog is to launch an investigation into how €290,000 was spent on furnishing the office of its own chairman in 2007 when he was a junior minister.

Members of the Dáil’s Public Accounts Committee yesterday agreed to examine the background into the lavish spending on the refurbishment of the office of PAC chairman, John McGuinness, when the Kilkenny TD was a junior minister in the Department of Enterprise, Trade, and Employment during the previous Fianna Fáil-Green Party coalition.

The investigation follows revelations by the Irish Independent about the €290,000 spent by the Office of Public Works in fitting out Mr McGuinness’s Kildare St office, including specifications that only luxury toilet roll could be used in an en-suite bathroom.