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.

A classic example of not seeing the wood for the trees, it shows how matters of considerable public concern could be obscured. The Irish Examiner investigation, as demonstrated by its findings, was fully justified in the public interest.