Coughlan’s failure to act symptom of wider malaise?

TO use a word she is particularly partial to, it would be “appropriate”, to say the least, if Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Mary Coughlan took appropriate measures to convince the public that the profligacy over which the board of Fás presided would not be repeated.

Some months ago, an internal audit concluded that the level of expenditure and sense of entitlement of top-level Fás officials was “shocking”.

Further comment referred to “a failure of control and oversight” on the part of the board. Those comments couldn’t be any clearer or less ambiguous.