Fás travel abuses - Coughlan must accept responsibility

The Dáil Public Accounts Committee, which monitors public spending, last week issued a scathing report on the travel abuses within Fás. The state training agency wrongly allowed executives and board members to travel first class since 1992.

Fás travel abuses - Coughlan must accept responsibility

This allowed senior executives to “trade down” their first-class tickets to enable their spouses to travel free of charge. Tánaiste Mary Coughlan has indicated she will not be asking those who abused the travel procedures to refund the excess money. Fás comes under her remit as Enterprise Minister, but she says the authorisation of foreign travel arrangements was a matter for Fás itself.

When urged by a Fine Gael spokesman to ask the people involved to refund the money, Ms Coughlan indicated that she would not be pursing the matter, because the travel details “were arranged and authorised at an official level in Fás”.

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