REACTION:TAOISEACH BRIAN Cowen last night expressed full confidence in Mary Harney as Minister for Health and Children.
In Helsinki after a meeting with Finnish prime minister Matti Vanhanen to discuss EU issues, Mr Cowen said a process was under way in response to the Fás controversy.
Mr Cowen said Tánaiste Mary Coughlan was liaising with the chairman of Fás, Peter McLoone, and would be reporting back to the Cabinet on Tuesday.
Minister for Education Batt O'Keeffe also strongly defended the Minister for Health yesterday, saying there was no question of her resigning over the revelation that Fás picked up the cost of hair treatments on a visit to the United States in 2004.
Mr O'Keeffe expressed confidence in Ms Harney, describing her as someone who was making an "invaluable" contribution to Cabinet.
"She maintains my full confidence. She is extremely bright, extremely clever and her experience is invaluable . . . she is doing an outstanding job in Cabinet," he said.
Mr O'Keeffe said that in fairness to Fás, no conclusions should be drawn until the investigation by the Dáil Public Accounts Committee was completed and recommendations made.
The Fás board will report to Ms Coughlan after its meeting today and she will bring the report to Cabinet on Tuesday, Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan told the Dáil yesterday.
Mr O'Keeffe denied that he was stopping short of offering his full support for the Fás board. "I want to be fair and just to the board," he said.
His officials had also asked third-level institutions and all other education bodies to ensure their spending complied with Department of Finance guidelines.
To date, there was no reason for concern, he said.
A Dáil debate on the Fás controversy was ruled out yesterday by Mr Lenihan, who said it would be highly undesirable to have a parallel debate when the board members of Fás were making themselves accountable to the Public Accounts Committee.
"The board of Fás met last night to consider the circumstances which led to the resignation of the director general and to see how the organisation can move forward following recent controversies," Mr Lenihan said.
"The board expressed its grave concern about these matters, but stated that in deference to the fact that the Committee of Public Accounts will subject the matters to legitimate parliamentary scrutiny this morning, it would not make a detailed statement at this point and will reconvene on Friday, once the committee hearing is complete, and will issue a full statement thereafter."
Ms Harney made no comment about the controversy yesterday and spent the afternoon at the Oireachtas health committee answering questions about the health service.
A spokesman for Ms Harney said that she had been absolutely forthcoming about the wash and blow-dry to her hair while on an official visit to the United States in 2004 and that all of the issues had been clarified.
Meanwhile, the Fine Gael spokesman on enterprise, Leo Varadkar, who called for Ms Harney's resignation for her part in the €410 bill for hair treatments in Florida in 2004, came in for criticism himself.
Dublin North Fianna Fáil TD Michael Kennedy criticised Dr Varadkar's attack and said that he has been quick to forget his own role in a local controversy involving a €3,000 trip to a planning conference in Malaysia in 2004.
"I share the view that public funds should only be used for stated purposes in relation to public servants travelling expenses. Deputy Varadkar, however, is very fast to criticise.
"I remember a time when his own attendance to a conference in Malaysia was the subject of a damning article in his local paper, the Community Voice," said Mr Kennedy.
"The Fine Gael deputy is quick to piously dish out the criticism, but is less amenable to taking it," Mr Kennedy added.