TWO KEY people in the Fás overspending controversy have declined to take up an invitation to appear before the Dáil Committee of Public Accounts.

Committee chairman Bernard Allen said Fás director Niall Saul had been written to twice, following his comments in the media that he believed information had been “deliberately” hidden from the board by executives of Fás.

Mr Allen said the committee was interested in hearing Mr Saul expand on these views but Mr Saul had failed to respond to two letters from the committee. He said the committee had no difficulty with how Mr Saul had dealt with the matter but it did take issue with the fact that Mr Saul went on the Today with Pat Kenny radio show to discuss the matter on the same day that Fás chairman Peter McLoone was meeting the committee.

The committee had also invited Fás’s former director of corporate services, Gregory Craig, to give evidence to it “as was his right” but Mr Craig declined the offer, Mr Allen said. Mr Craig’s former division at Fás took charge of much of the agency’s advertising budget.