MINISTER FOR Health Mary Harney has warned that “tough” measures will be taken against any officials found to have made inappropriate use of State money connected with a Department of Health €2.35 million training fund.
Ms Harney said yesterday she would be very concerned if it transpired that money from the fund was misappropriated or used for inappropriate purposes, but she stressed that the matter was still under investigation by a number of agencies.
“Tough decisions will have to be made if there was inappropriate use of public money,” said Ms Harney after it emerged that 31 overseas trips were paid for from the fund over a number of years.
“The matter is subject to investigation both by the comptroller and auditor general and by An Garda Síochána and, to be fair, this came to light through the HSE’s own internal audit and when it came to light, the HSE suspended all payments in question,” the Minister said.
Acting Fine Gael finance spokesman Kieran O’Donnell said on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland that the list of foreign trips was “literally mind-boggling”.
He added: “This has been happening since 2002 with €250,000 per annum going through this particular fund.”
Labour’s health spokeswoman Jan O’Sullivan said in a statement: “It is difficult to understand how the very laudable objective of retraining low-skilled workers in the health service would require trips to Australia or to Savannah, Georgia.
“It would be particularly unacceptable if money spent on foreign travel meant that there was actually less money for retraining at home.
“On the face of it, there are alarming similarities between the way money was spent from this fund and the unacceptable waste of money we saw in Fás in recent years,” Ms O’Sullivan said.