The scandal first emerged in June 2008 when Dáil Éireann (the lower house of the Irish parliament) was told one morning by Leader of the Opposition Enda Kenny that gardaí were investigating the alleged misappropriate use of funds by a senior executive within FÁS.
[1] The director general of the FÁS, the training and employment agency, Roddy Molloy resigned late on 25 November after revelations that himself and fellow FÁS executives spent hundreds of thousands of euro belonging to the company on lavish holidays to the United States, which included first-class travel and expensive rounds of golf,[2] including €643,000 over a period of four years on transatlantic travel for the purpose of promoting the Science Challenge programme and almost €48,000 in air fares for journeys undertaken by Molloy, sometimes accompanied by his wife.
[4] The turning point proved to be an interview Molloy gave to the RTÉ Radio 1 show Today with Pat Kenny in which he grossly underestimated the tide of public opinion in his defence of his company's expenses.
The Sunday Independent broke the story on 23 November 2008 after an investigation by its business editor, Senator Shane Ross[5] and fellow journalist Nick Webb.
On FÁS's corporate affairs director Greg Craig's company credit card being used to cover a $410 bill at Solutions beauty and nail salon on West Cocoa Beach, Florida in August 2005 (later infamously linked with the politician Mary Harney), Molloy implied that the amount of money, "in terms of the total package, is very, very small".
Finally Molloy was quizzed on the €500 glass barometer that a FÁS representative had purchased as a gift for the Irish Minister for Education Mary Hanafin on a visit to their US project.
[13] He was replaced by a new six-month interim director-general, Eddie Sullivan, a former secretary general with the Department of Finance who was previously commissioned by the government to report on the 2006 rape law controversy, medical card fees for doctors and data protection legislation.
[15] Questions were also raised about Molloy's decision to move a jobs fair from the smaller RDS venue to the larger Croke Park stadium in Dublin.
He described the catering facilities at the RDS as "unacceptable" in standard and price, before suggesting that children might be killed whilst crossing the road to obtain nutritional maintenance elsewhere and insisting that incoming Gaelic Athletic Association president Christy Cooney, an assistant director with FAS, was not involved in the move.
[16] Nearly €30,000 was spent by FÁS on a film crew to capture the 2006 visit of US astronaut, Commander Eileen Collins, whom the agency invited to Ireland to promote a science project.
[18] The head of the FÁS board, Peter McLoone, denied that he had "turned a blind eye" to foreign travel expenses, saying he was "never aware" of any excess expenditure.
He once described his "principal interest in life" as GAA; an avid hurling fan he was overheard boasting to a Dáil committee that he had tickets to a game at Croke Park.
[24] Michael Lillis, a former leading civil servant and diplomat, said Molloy "should not have been driven out" and that he "played an important part for a generation in developing the Irish economy".
It found that proper procurement protocols were not adhered to and standard foreign travel policy was not abided by FÁS, resulting in a loss to the Exchequer.
[26] It found that FÁS should not have paid for flights of former board members, journalists and spouses of executives, whilst costs in respect of ministers and civil servants should have been borne by the department.
The following day at the FF party think-in at Athlone, Tánaiste Mary Coughlan defended the move to top up Mr Molloy's pension saying it was politically imperative to see a change of DG.
The matter rumbled on for weeks with the Tánaiste initially stating she acted on legal advice and said she did so to avoid a lengthy court battle to remove Mr Molloy from his position.