Senior 'heads must roll'

FÁS STAFF who are members of Siptu have expressed disappointment and anger that “serious failings” by some senior managers had again reflected badly on the State training body.

The union called on the Fás board to direct that all levels of the organisation, including senior management, fully adhered to established procedures so that essential services were delivered effectively to the public.

Branch organiser Brendan O’Brien said rank and file staff, represented by Siptu, were continuing to deliver essential services in training and upskilling. “Our members have consistently called on senior management to ensure that all levels of the organisation adhere to our procedures and agreements in order to ensure that we deliver an efficient and first-class service to the public, many of whom depend on Fás”.

Leo Varadkar, Fine Gael’s employment spokesman, insisted “heads must roll” at board and senior executive level after the uncovering of “shocking” levels of bad practice and waste of taxpayers’ money.

“Accountability for this bad practice goes all the way to the top of the organisation,” he said.

“Yet no single member of the Fás board, or anyone at senior management level, has been held accountable.

“The only person to take any responsibility for these disgraceful practices is former director general Rody Molloy, who merely took early retirement and left with his full pension intact, along with a golden handshake.”

Labour’s Róisín Shortall said the findings in the report demanded swift and strong action from the Tánaiste. “At a time when child benefit is under threat, when hospitals have been forced to curtail their services and when school classes are getting bigger, profligacy on this level is simply unacceptable,” she said.