The chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, Bernard Allen, has reprimanded the Secretary General of the Department of Enterprise, Trade & Employment for what he said was an unacceptable delay in providing a report on FÁS.
Deputy Allen said there was no real urgency in the way the Department was dealing with an investigation into one FÁS programme, on which €126m had been spent.
The secretary general of the department, Seán Gorman, said an outsider, unconnected with either the Department or FÁS, had been brought in to do this report - which was almost ready for the committee.
Bernard Allen said he did not accept the explanation and told the Department to 'get its act together'.
He said the committee had problems getting at the truth of what had gone on in FÁS and the Department was dithering.
Mr Gorman also told the committee that a severance payment given to the former director general of FÁS, Roddy Molloy, cannot be set aside, according to advice given to the department by the Attorney General.
Mr Gorman said that, in November, the Tánaiste had ordered a review of that severance package. He said the advice was that there was no legal basis to set aside the package.
