Public money controlled by Siptu officials funded 31 trips

OVERSEAS TRAVEL:PUBLIC MONEY controlled by two senior Siptu officials was used to pay for at least 31 foreign trips over the past six years, the Dáil Committee on Public Accounts heard yesterday.

An inquiry by HSE auditor Dr Geraldine Smith has resulted in 29 people being identified as having gone on 31 trips, some of them on multiple occasions. The people involved are civil and public servants and trade union officials.

Dr Smith said that because the fund controlled by Matt Merrigan and Jack Kelly was used for the trips, the HSE had no related documentation. She had established some of the details from interviews with HSE and other personnel and other methods.

The money in the account controlled by the Siptu officials came from the budget of the Skill programme, which was designed to provide training to low-paid health sector workers.

Mr Merrigan and Mr Kelly are believed to have travelled on a number of the trips. They and others travelled to New York in March 2004 and Boston in March 2007. Mr Merrigan travelled to New York in January 2005, March 2006, February 2007 and May 2008.

Alan Smith, who ran the Skill programme, travelled on 22 trips according to a list produced by Dr Geraldine Smith. One trip in October 2008 was to the US, Australia, Hong Kong and the UK. Mr Smith has since availed of the public service severance package.

Pat Harvey, the former chief executive of the North Western Health Board, Peter McLoone, the former head of Impact, Kevin Callinan of Impact, and Peter Bunting of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, are among those listed as having travelled on trips paid for by the fund.

Mr McLoone is listed as having travelled to Boston in 2007 and Mr Harvey to New York in March 2006. The committee was told the HSE had some information as to the purpose of the visits, but it had no formal written records of the purpose and outcomes of the trips. This was because they were organised through the fund controlled by the Siptu officials.

The secretary general of the Department of Health, Michael Scanlan, said his department had identified trips on which officials had travelled funded by the account. Some were additional to those listed by Dr Smith.

He said an official had gone to Vancouver, Canada, in March 2003. Bernard Carey of the department had gone on a “partnership visit” to New York from March 13th to 20th, 2004.

Three officials had gone to St Paul, Minnesota in September 2004. In March 2005, Frank Ahern had gone on a trip to the US and Australia and in March 2008, by which time he was retired, he had gone to Savannah, Georgia. In March 2005, Eddie Flood had gone to New York.

In March 2006, an official had gone on an employer/union study visit to New York. Mr Carey had gone to New York between March 13th and 23rd, 2007. In October 2008, Jim Breslin, an assistant secretary at the department, had gone to Australia. Mr Breslin was at yesterday’s meeting.

In March 2009, Mr Carey and Mr Ahern had gone to New York. Mr Carey is also an assistant secretary in the department. Some officials brought their wives with them on some trips, but paid for them out of their own resources.

The committee also heard that an official from the Department of Finance, Tom Dowling, had gone on eight out of the 31 trips identified by Dr Smith. Five of these were to the UK and three to the US. Mr Dowling retired in October 2009.

Some of the costs incurred on the trips were subsequently recouped unvouched through Skill by the Siptu officials, Dr Smith said in her audit report on the matter.