Splurging public money - VEC probe justified

It is outrageous that County Cork VEC should risk splurging public money in a possible defamation action against this newspaper over a probe into its finances.

Despite a departmental warning not to spend public money seeking legal opinion, the VEC ignored that advice and engaged a barrister and solicitors for an as yet unknown sum.

In the heel of the hunt, the burden of legal opinion, as revealed at yesterday’s VEC meeting, was that taking a case on the basis that the VEC itself was defamed, would be both costly and protracted. The proposal has now been dropped.