Chairman says FÁS board will go

FÁS chiefs are to resign en masse after revelations that millions of euro of taxpayers' money was overspent at the State training agency, it was revealed today.

Chairman Peter McLoone signalled the board of directors will meet shortly and formally announce their standing down.

“I’m satisfied that ... the board will decide that it should step down and cooperate fully with an orderly transition to a new board,” he said.

Tánaiste Mary Coughlan, who has the power to sack the bosses but refused to do so, has already said she would accept their resignations if offered.

Mr McLoone, who is also the general secretary of trade union Impact, said there was no instruction from the Government for the 17 directors to step down.

Insisting they remained fit to serve, the chairman said they were resigning because they did not want the misspending scandal to detract from the work of FÁS.

Speaking on RTE radio, Mr McLoone said the current board had strengthened oversight at the agency and introduced practices to prevent a repeat of what had happened before.

A report by public spending watchdog, the Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG), released last week, revealed millions of euro was overspent by FÁS bosses on advertising and promotions between 2002 and 2008.

Environment Minister John Gormley led calls for the board to resign over the revelations.

Taoiseach Brian Cowen said on Friday legislation would be published in the coming weeks to overhaul Fas, including its board.

Appointed in January 2006, the present board was scheduled to run until December 2010.

Labour's Roisin Shortall is a member of the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee who is critical of the size and composition of previous FÁS boards,

"We need to...have a scaled-down board - a seven-person board with people with particular expertise - and stop this gravy train," she said.