Committee unaware of €2m account, says Attley

RETIRED SIPTU general secretary Billy Attley yesterday said the steering committee of the Skill training scheme had no authority over finances and was not aware of a controversial Siptu bank account.

Mr Attley was the chairman of the steering group which oversaw the controversial training programme. The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) is investigating how some €2 million in funding for the programme was paid into a bank account called the Siptu National Health and Local Authority Levy Fund.

The Health Service Executive (HSE) has said this funding was used partly to pay for foreign trips by officials. Mr Attley told the committee he had not approved any foreign trips to the UK or elsewhere. Neither had he been aware that members of the Skill steering group had been on such trips abroad. The first time he was aware of the foreign trips was when he read about them in the newspaper, Mr Attley said.

Mr Attley was asked by Labour TD Róisín Shortall if he was aware of the Siptu bank account. He said he was not aware of it. The steering committee had nothing to do with financial applications, he added. He said he was told by the head of the Skill scheme in 2008 that no concerns had been raised about the training programme. A bimonthly audit report on the spend on training was sent to the HSE and the Comptroller and Auditor General, Mr Attley told the PAC.