FÁS SPENT in excess of €100,000 on matches, concerts and associated entertainment in Croke Park over the past two years, The Irish Timeshas learned.
The State training authority spent in excess of €40,000 on four 10-year premium seat tickets at the stadium that give access to all GAA matches up to and including All-Ireland finals.
It spent in excess of that again on concert tickets and tickets for non-GAA sporting events.
It also paid for a number of expensive lunches held at the stadium in association with attendance at the events.
Those who hold premium seat tickets are offered the option to buy tickets for non-GAA events at the stadium.
It is understood the level of expenditure at Croke Park over the past two years by Fás came to the attention of the new director general, Eddie Sullivan, recently following a Freedom of Information request by The Irish Times.
In a statement yesterday a spokesman for Fás said: "The director general took the decision last week that it wasn't appropriate for Fás to hold such tickets or be involved in such entertainments.
"He asked for the tickets to be resold to Croke Park last week and decided there would not be any further purchases of tickets for sporting or entertainment events or for associated hospitality."
Mr Sullivan was appointed director general of Fás on an interim basis earlier this month after Rody Molloy resigned from the position as a result of controversy over spending controls at the authority and the expenditure of public funds on first-class flights to Florida.
A number of years ago, Fás switched its annual Opportunities jobs fair from the RDS to Croke Park. The fair is the largest single item in the Fás annual budget.
At a hearing of the Dáil Public Accounts Committee on December 4th, Mr Molloy said assistant director general Christy Cooney had no role in the decision to move the event to Croke Park.
"I make it clear that the decision to move to Croke Park from the RDS did not involve Mr Cooney," he said. "It was a decision that I took, or I initiated the change."
Mr Molloy also said Mr Cooney did not have any role in the decision to use the Nemo Rangers GAA stadium in Cork.
Mr Cooney is president elect of the GAA, having won the vote on the position earlier this year.
He was narrowly defeated when he went for the position in 2005. He takes over from Nickey Brennan next year.
