ADDITIONAL PAYMENTS of about €300,000 into the bank account at the centre of the Skill training fund controversy have now been identified.
In a letter sent to the Dáil Public Accounts Committee yesterday, Siptu general secretary Joe O’Flynn said it had established that between 2001 and July 2010, the account, known as the Siptu National Health and Local Authority Levy Fund, had received lodgments of €4.48 million in total.
He said these lodgements had come from various sources.
Siptu headquarters had previously insisted it had no knowledge of this account or the payments into it.
Up to now it had been believed that the amount paid into the account from various State sources amounted to €4,099,865.
A Siptu spokesman last night said the newly identified inflows of money into the account had come from both “public and private sources”.
He said that until its official report into the account was completed, it could not say from where the additional money had come.
In his letter, Mr O’Flynn said that the bank account had been established and operated by two individuals, “one a senior official employed by Siptu and the second a voluntary representative of the union”.
“They were the sole signatories on the bank account and they have sought their own independent legal and accounting advice.” The Dáil committee has previously heard that the account was controlled by Siptu official Matt Merrigan and member Jack Kelly.
Up to now it had been known that payments from about six different State sources had been paid into the Siptu fund.
Just over €2 million had come in the form of grants and payments sanctioned to Siptu by the Department of Health, some of which was top-sliced from funding for the Skill training programme for lower-paid health service staff.
A further €348,000 had come in cost reimbursements under the Skill programme.
Just over €924,000 had been paid into the account in payments from the Health Service National Partnership Forum. Separately, a further €789,000 had been paid into the account from a partnership forum in the local authority sector, known as Lanpag.
An additional €5,449 is known to have been paid into the account as reimbursement for the flights of the spouses of a number of public officials who had travelled on overseas trips.
The Health Service Executive has assessed in a confidential internal analysis that just over €2,013,000 had been paid out of the Siptu fund.
Mr O’Flynn said taxpayers were entitled to an explanation of how funds in the account were provided and disbursed.
He said Siptu was awaiting the outcome of a forensic examination commissioned by the individuals who controlled the account.
