HSE training fund - Response must be firm

MINISTER of Health Mary Harney gave all the right answers when, speaking in West Cork yesterday morning, she said that anyone found to have misappropriated some of a Health Service Executive €2.35 million training fund will be subject to “tough” measures.

Unfortunately only time will tell how tough these measures might be. Experience shows, unfortunately, that officials who have fallen well short of either the professional or ethical standards we all expect, and most employers demand, face sanctions no greater than early retirement without pension or severance terms being reduced in any way.

How can such kid glove treatment deter anyone who might defraud their employer or under-perform to a startling degree? It is worrying too that it took so very long — seven years — to uncover this discrepancy.