The Minister of State for Finance, Mr Tom Parlon, has brushed aside a call for his resignation after the publication of a report which showed multiple breaches of EU and Government procurement rules at the Office of Public Works (OPW).
Mr Parlon's spokeswoman said last night that he viewed the breakdown in internal controls that were disclosed in the report by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) as a "very serious" matter.
The report showed that the EU and State procurement guidelines were breached in many contracts for special services required for official events linked to Ireland's presidency of the EU.
In one example, it found major flaws in the procurement of a marquee-like structure assembled for an EU meeting at Punchestown, Co Kildare, which was chaired by the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy.
Mr Parlon's spokeswoman was already putting measures in place to ensure that the OPW followed the official procurement guidelines. "He does not feel that this is a resigning matter," she said.
However, Labour's finance spokeswoman Ms Joan Burton said that a report so critical of procedures in such a public body would lead to the resignation of the Minister responsible "in virtually any other democratic country".
Ms Burton raised the report on the adjournment of the Dáil last night but Mr Parlon was not there as she said the breakdown in procedures was inexcusable.
Ms Burton asked whether private firms seeking to do business with the OPW or other State agencies could have confidence "that they too are not being victimised by the failure to implement proper procurement procedures".
The Minister of State for Education, Ms Síle de Valera, who responded for Mr Parlon, rejected Ms Burton's claims that Mr Parlon was guilty of "gross disrespect" of the Dáil by releasing the report to the media before he answered parliamentary questions on the same subject.
Ms Burton said: "This is not some trivial matter, but a clear and systematic breach of the principles that should govern the State's approach to doing business with the private sector.
"Given the key role that the OPW was asked to play in the organisation of Irish Presidency events,
"I assume that Minister Parlon would have been closely involved in the preparation and planning for these meetings.
"Why did he not satisfy himself that appropriate procedures were being applied in regard to the allocation of valuable contracts?"
Fine Gael's finance spokesman, Mr Richard Bruton, said the report presented a "very sorry sight. Effectively, they are driving a coach and four through the public procurement procedures.
"This is a Department directly under the supervision of the PDs through Tom Parlon and further up the line by Charlie McCreevy. That's at the political heart of where you would expect to see high standards. Instead, you see a shambles."
Mr Bruton said the PwC report showed that two internal audit reports had exposed weakness in the OPW's system but said that no-one moved to apply the official procedures.
