There is no evidence to show that teacher training funding provided to Coláiste Mhuire Marino was used for any other purpose, the Dáil was told.
Opposition deputies called for an inquiry into allegations of bullying and the misuse of funds at the privately-owned Dublin college, also known as the Marino Institute of Education.
Minister of State Noel Ahern said that "as matters stand, there is absolutely no information to show that any part of the funding provided to Coláiste Mhuire Marino for the training of teachers was not used for that intended purpose".
"If anyone has information to the contrary, that information should be forwarded to the Department of Education for Immediate consideration and investigation if necessary".
Speaking for Minister for Education Mary Hanafin, who is in Poland, Mr Ahern said that a meeting would take place next week between department officials and trustees of the Marino Institute for Education on the issues involved.
The head of the college, Caoimhe Mairtin, left her post last week after a settlement, amid allegations of bullying and intimidation. A former teaching brother at the College, Br Rory Geoghegan, also wrote to the Department of Education about his concerns regarding the treatment of staff at the college. He was subsequently moved to Africa.
Mr Ahern said during a Dáil adjournment debate that the correspondence from BR Geoghegan was being treated "as important and urgent" and the importance of the issue had been emphasised to the trustees of the college. Independent TD and former teacher Finian McGrath (Dublin north-Central) claimed that "a top quality college of education is being severely damaged by a group of people who have now put the college into complete disarray". Fine Gael's education spokeswoman, Olwyn Enright, said the Minister for Education had a duty to ensure that taxpayers' money allocated for primary teacher training, was used for that purpose. Serious questions had to be answered about the use to which this money was being put, she said and called for assurances that the settlement to the head of the college and the legal costs involved would not come from exchequer funds.
Calling for an inquiry into bullying and intimidation at the college, and accountability of public funding, Mr McGrath said there were major questions to be asked about the use of conferencing funds at the college.
He had heard complaints about a governor of the college telling people "you are sitting on 43 acres of prime real estate" and he had heard "a president in July 2004, hunched over and crying after being abused by trustees".
Ms Enright also asked where the money was coming from to pay for the settlement to the college's former principal and for the legal costs involved and she called for assurances that it would not come from exchequer funding. The Laois Offaly TD added that there were three other grievance procedures pending in relation to alleged bullying by former and current governors.
