Ministers must examine state agencies' expenses, says Cowen

Government ministers must examine the expense accounts of all state agencies under their remit, Taoiseach Brian Cowen said today.

Mr Cowen told the Dáil that he didn’t believe that lavish spending by FÁS executives while in the US should have happened.

The state training agency amassed a €643,000 bill for transatlantic travel over four years, according to figures obtained by Independent Senator Shane Ross.

Mr Cowen, who yesterday defended FÁS chief executive Rody Molloy as an “excellent public servant” told the Dáil today: “I don’t believe that there are items of expenditure there that should have been incurred. That is clear.”

He added: “What we need to ensure is that the accountability of the organisation is such that we find the full remit of what was going on and that process is in place.”

Investigations into FÁS by the Comptroller & Auditor General and the Public Accounts Committee must be awaited, Mr Cowen said.

Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny referred to the bill for $400 (€308) at a nail bar in Florida and a corporate credit card with a €76,000 limit.

“Is this appropriate expenditure of taxpayers’ money when 10,000 people a month are losing their jobs?” Mr Kenny asked.

Labour leader Eamon Gilmore queried if the extravagant expenses were being incurred in other state agencies.

But Mr Cowen replied: “I’m not aware of any other agency which has this issue before them.”

He added: “But clearly ministers should contact those agencies under their remit and have their chief executives confirm that their arrangements are in compliance with the regulations in place.”

Earlier, Mr Kenny said: “I’m acutely concerned about what appears to be extravagant waste, abuse of privilege and failure to account properly for the taxpayer.”

He added: “It is too cavalier an approach. People pay their taxes, 2,500 a week go on the unemployment lists, and here you have all these stories about wild extravagance on West Cocoa Beach somewhere in Florida.”

FÁS, which has a €1bn budget, is due to be quizzed on the lavish spending at the Public Accounts Committee meeting in Leinster House on Thursday.

The figures obtained by Senator Ross revealed that Mr Molloy, who sometimes travelled with his wife, clocked up thousands of euro worth of airline bills, including a return trip to the east coast of America for €7,500 in February.

Another FÁS official went on a round-the-world trip taking in Frankfurt, Tokyo, Honolulu, San Francisco, and Dublin on business class tickets costing over €12,000.

Some executives also ordered pay-per-view movies in their hotel rooms, while lavish dinners were also bought.

Mr Molloy defended taking his wife on trips with him and claimed he was entitled to travel first class but traded down to business class when his wife came along.