THE BOARD of Fás should not be sacked "as part of a deal to rescue the Coalition", a number of Fás directors have told The Irish Times.

The directors said the board understood that up to recently it had the support of the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Mary Coughlan, but that this had changed for reasons to do with the Green Party.

“In our view we had the support of the Minister but then it disappeared after Gormley went to see the Taoiseach,” one director said.

A number of directors spoke to The Irish Timesabout the pressure there has been on the board since the controversy began last year about spending controls at the employment authority, on condition that they would not be identified. Their views are understood to be representative of the board generally.

Referring to the need for the Green Party to get the support of its membership if its TDs are to approve the National Asset Management Agency Bill, a director said: “I don’t think this board should be sacked as part of a deal to rescue the Greens and Nama.”

The directors said that at the time of the publication of a report on Fás by the Dáil Public Accounts Committee this year, Ms Coughlan told a delegation from the Fás board that they should “carry on”.

They said the board has been working intensively on responding to the weaknesses that were identified in certain areas of Fás, and that it wants to remain in place to see this work completed.

The work includes 22 audit reports on expenditure and controls in the corporate affairs and procurement areas. The reports are nearing completion. “We want to see the 22 reports to finality,” a director said. “We are concerned that a new board might want to forget about all this and move on.”

The expenditure issues were discovered by the authority’s internal audit section after anonymous allegations was sent in 2004 to the then minister for enterprise, trade and employment, Mary Harney, who forwarded it to her husband and then Fás chairman, Brian Geoghegan.

The directors also claimed that: the board was told by former director general Rody Molloy that Micheál Martin wanted Fás to hold an Opportunities jobs fair in Cork as well as Dublin;

the board was told about income from the Independent News Media group arising from its sponsorship of the annual Opportunities jobs fairs, but was not told about the extensive expenditure by Fás on advertisements in Independent titles. One director said the Independent may have made a net profit from its relationship with Fás;

the board has become aware that payments being made by Fás officials were split so that they would not reach the threshold that would require board approval.

Fás board members

Chairman:Peter McLoone;

Minister for Enterprise, Trade Employment representatives:Caroline Casey and Dermot Mulligan;

Representative for Minister for Education and Science:Anne Forde;

Representative for Minister for Social and Family Affairs:Deirdre Shanley (Appointed March 1st, 2009);

Representative for Minister for Finance:Dermot Nolan;

Trade union representatives:Des Geraghty, Alice Prendergast, Owen Wills, Sally Anne Kinahan;

Youth representative:James O'Leary;

Employer representatives:Jenny Hayes, Brian Keogh, Niall Saul;

Employee representatives:Margaret Mernagh, Frank Walsh.