THE DEPARTMENT of Health told a senior Siptu official in late 2004 that it wanted to put a controversial annual €250,000 payment to the union on a firm footing into the future.
The payment – which amounted to €2.3 million over several years – has been the subject of controversy in recent days.
It emerged last night that there were 31 foreign trips undertaken in total which were associated with the controversial fund.
The Irish Times revealed last week that there had been study visits organised to Australia in 2005, to New York in 2006, to Boston in 2007, to Savannah in the US in 2008, and to New York in 2009.
RTÉ reported last night that there had been a total of nine trips made to New York between 2004 and 2009, with two visits annually on some occasions.
There were 10 trips to London, as well as visits to Sheffield, Birmingham, Southampton and Brussels, according to the report.
An internal HSE audit maintained that some of the funding given by the Department of Health had been used to pay for foreign trips involving public officials and others which were not properly accounted for.
Siptu has categorically stated that it did not receive any of the money allocated by the department which was paid over initially by the former Midland Health Board and later by the HSE.
In a letter dated December 4th, 2004, a senior figure in the department’s personnel, management and development section told a senior Siptu official that new procedures were being introduced to put a previously ad hoc arrangement for making the payment to the union – which had been in place since 2002 – “on a firm footing into the future”.
“Ongoing funding of €250,000 per annum out of the overall parallel benchmarking budget for the training, education and development of support staff (SKILL project) has been earmarked to maintain support for Siptu’s human resource/personnel development schemes and the development of management/union partnerships of best practice in health enterprises.
“This funding has been provided in the Midland Health Board letter of determination for 2005 on the basis that it will be channelled to Siptu via the Office for Health Management, as in previous years,” the letter states.
Siptu has said it has commenced an internal investigation but has said that this is being hampered because the HSE has not provided it with a copy of its internal audit report.
Senior union sources said that the absence of officials on foreign trips had been brought to the attention of senior figures in Siptu over the years but that they had been informed that the funding was being provided by the HSE or the Department of Health.
The national executive of Siptu considered the controversy at a meeting yesterday.
A Siptu spokesman said that the executive had been given an assurance by its national officers that the money in question provided by the Department of Health through the HSE had never been received in any of the union’s accounts. The spokesman said that this had been verified by external auditors.