Sack Fás board - Gilmore

Labour Party leader Eamon Gilmore has called for the Fás board of directors to be dismissed in response to  yesterday's report from the Comptroller and Auditor General into the agency.

The report found there was little or no response from the executive board to large and repeated overspending on advertising during the period 2002-2008.

Speaking in Cork this morning, Mr Gilmore called for a “much closer examination of what was going on”.

He said what had happened in Fás “was an example of the kind of splurge of spending that was being encouraged by government through the boom years” and claimed that the Department of Enterprise had encouraged additional spending over several years.

He accused successive ministers of failing to use their powers of oversight. “It seems to me that that wasn’t adequately exercised by a number of ministers in the lifetime of the Fianna Fáil government.”

He asked what sort of message would be sent out the board did not step down. “It sends out a message that there is no consequence - there has to be accountability - what happened in Fás, has I think, scandalised people."

He described as “extraordinary” yesterday’s statement from the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Mary Coughlan in which she said she would accept a letter of resignation from the board of directors at Fás.

“She is the Minister responsible for that agency - she is the Minister for the hiring and firing of the board - if she has lost the confidence of the board to the extent that she will accept a letter of resignation from them, then she should follow the logic of that and dismiss them.”

Mr Gilmore also welcomed yesterday’s decision by the High Court to reject an examinership application by seven groups within Liam Carroll’s Zoe Group and said he believed the judgment had significantly damaged the Government’s plans for a National Assets Management Agency.

“I think the clarification by the High Court will now allow for a greater degree of clarity as to what is the value of the various property loans,” he said.  and described the decision as “very helpful”

“It does hold Nama below the water line because what was being attempted here was a play for time until Nama would come to the rescue and in a way that gives the game away about what Nama is all about - rescuing these property developers and providing them with a soft landing at the taxpayers' expense.”

He said the approach being taken by the Government would “put Irish taxpayers into hock for generations”.

He said the High Court decision would mean “the values of the various properties ... cannot be expressed in values that are greater than market values - it undermines the approach that the Government is taking.”