The head of the State training agency Fás has defended some €643,000 in spending by himself and senior executives on transatlantic travel over a four-year period, insisting it stood up to scrutiny.
Director general Rody Molloy said the money was spent by Fás in the course of promoting its Science Challenge programme, which places Irish students with hi-tech companies in the US, including the space agency Nasa.
Taoiseach Brian Cowen said today he had "every confidence" in Mr Molloy, after Opposition criticism of the expenditure.
The air travel bill included spending of €48,000 by Mr Molloy, sometimes travelling with his wife, on business class airfares. In February of this year they incurred an airfare bill for a return trip to the US for €7,500.
Both Mr Molloy and his wife travelled business class to New York in May last year at a cost of €6,655. They returned to New York in November and the airfares cost €7,281.
Other trips included a visit to Boston at a cost of €1,634 for flights in June 2005. In July 2004, the couple flew to Orlando in Florida at a cost of €9,648 for business class fares.
Another Fás official went with his wife on a three-week round the world trip to Frankfurt, Tokyo, Honolulu, San Francisco and back to Dublin via Frankfurt. Their business class tickets cost €12,021 and the expense claim was signed by Mr Molloy.
Other expenditure included the use of a Fás company credit card to cover a bill for $410 in a beauty and nail salon in Florida in August 2005.
Interviewed on RTÉ radio by broadcaster Pat Kenny this morning, Mr Molloy said he believed he and Fás executives had done nothing wrong as the expenditure was incurred in the course of promoting a very important science exchange programme.
Defending a €15,000 spend on two flights to Orlando for himself and Fás chairman and trade union official Peter McLoone in January, Mr Molloy said: ¿Orlando also happens to be very close to the Nasa facility where the [space] shuttle lands and takes off from and we have over a number of years built up a relationship with Nasa where we have placed Irish students in NASA to give them opportunity to work in the top research facilities in the world and to allow them to build relationships between their own universities in Ireland and the facilities in Florida.
"So, I think anyone who knows Florida [knows] it¿s not just about Disney World, there is also a very substantial scientific community in Florida which we have developed relationships with over the years with this programme."
On an amount of $10 for a pay-per-view movie, included in a hotel bill, Mr Molloy dismissed it as "chicken-feed".
"It's what? $10 for a movie? That was an oversight on our part. The bill was paid as a communal bill for a number of people who were there at a time when we were trying to develop relationships with senior people. Nasa is a major US government agency.
"To develop relationships with them, given that we are not American citizens, is not easy. But let me say - because this is an important part of this - we know a number of other countries have tried to copy the programmes we have developed with Nasa and have not been able to do so."
Responding to comments from listeners read out by Kenny that Fás had wasted public money on "junkets" and that he was "on a different planet", Mr Molloy responded:
"I can't do anything to change what has happened. All I am saying is we developed a very good programme which has benefited a huge number of Irish students, has given them opportunities they wouldn't otherwise have had, which we believe will contribute substantially to this economy as the economy comes out of the recession.
"And we will need people with those kinds of skills."
Mr Molloy acknowledged that "people are understandably angry at the moment because we are in a downturn".
"A lot of people are losing their jobs. That's understandable. All I can do in so far as Fás has a role in this is ensure that we direct our resources as best as possible and we are going through a huge process at the moment trying to do that, to assist and help people who are losing their jobs to first of all understand the process they have to deal with, and then find themselves back in employment."
He said the agency's record in the past "stands up to scrutiny" and it would do so in the future.
Mr Molloy said the investigation by the Public Accounts Committee into issues at Fás was "nothing to do with" the Science Challenge programme.
"It's completely separate issue about breaches of procedure in our public affairs department, which we ourselves uncovered through our own internal audit process and which we have dealt with. A completely separate issue."
Mr Cowen said Mr Molloy would appear before the Public Accounts Committee in the normal way this week and that there was also an investigation pending by the Comptroller & Auditor General into some matters at Fás.
"I know him personally. He has been an excellent public servant over the years and I have every confidence in him," Mr Cowen said.
Fine Gael enterprise spokesman Leo Varadkar called on Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise Mary Coughlan to either "back or sack" Mr Molloy and his board following the revelations about the expenditure. He said there must now be a "forensic" examination of all Fás departments.
Labour Party enterprise spokesman Willie Penrose said the latest disclosures about expenditure for senior executives of Fás had raised "an understandable level of fury among taxpayers who, at the end of the day, foot the bill for these activities".
He called on the Tánaiste to "get a grip on the situation in Fás" to ensure value for money for taxpayers.