The Minister for Finance and his Northern equivalent have agreed the head of a cross-Border aid body set up under the Belfast Agreement can resign.
Mr John McKinney heads the Special EU Programmes Body but was suspended on full pay last May pending a police investigation. He has agreed to step down and it is reported he will receive a £20,000 payment.
Mr McCreevy and Mr Ian Pearson agreed that Mr McKinney, suspended from his £73,000 post, could resign tomorrow . This will allow the work of the EU programmes to continue while an investigation continues into a £140,000 loan agreed by Omagh council, which Mr McKinney used to head before taking up his job with the EU programmes.
The programmes were established following the signing of the Belfast Agreement in 1998 and are funded by Europe to the tune of £1 billion.
The North's Department of Finance and Personnel said in a statement yesterday: "It would be in the public interest for the SEUPB and Mr McKinney to go their separate ways, rather than allowing continued and unavoidable uncertainty to stand in the way of the fulfilment of the aspirations of all concerned."
The ministers praised Mr McKinney for his role in establishing the body "and helping to build its important and unique role in the new North-South arrangements brought into being under the agreement".
Mr McKinney also released a statement last night: "I am very pleased that I have been restored to my position as chief executive of the Special EU Programmes Body before my agreed departure. I reiterate my belief that I acted at all times in good faith and with integrity in the matter under investigation by the PSNI. I greatly welcome the fact that an amicable way forward has now been agreed, and that I can move on with my good name intact."