The secretary general at the Department of Health has said it was inappropriate for civil servants to travel on foreign trips paid for by trade union officials.
However, Michael Scanlan said he was satisfied that there was no impropriety or irregularity involved on the part of individual officials within the department. He said that disciplinary action did not arise.
The Dáil Public Accounts Committee is holding a hearing into how more than €4 million in State funds ended up in the bank account controlled by two individuals associated with the trade union Siptu.
The union has said it has no knowledge of the account known as the Siptu National Help and Local Authority Levy fund.
The Health Service Executive (HSE) has contended that the money withdrawn from this account was used to pay for foreign trips undertaken by trade union leaders and public officials.
Mr Scanlan told the committee that he believes the trips were organised by Siptu officials and that certain costs - generally flights and accommodation - were met from the fund.
The committee has heard that a series of payments, possibly going back to 1998, were made to the union for a period under various headings.
Mr Scanlan said it had not been possible "to establish for certain the precise origin, nature and purpose of the payments or why they were paid into the National Help and Local Authority Levy fund".
He said that four officials who had sanctioned payments to the union had travelled on foreign trips.
HSE chief executive Cathal Magee said there had been "a systemic failure to adhere to the financial, travel and procurement regulations of the HSE, relating to both the operation of the Skill training programme and the HSE National Partnership programme.
Fianna Fáil TD Michael McGrath said it seemed that the price of industrial peace was "bringing people on jollies" in the health sector.
