Dr. Geraldine Smith:

I do not believe there is a bad relationship between SIPTU and me. From my perspective, when I went to audit this matter, there were no records. As Mr. O'Brien noted, the manager of the SKILL programme office retired just as we began the audit. Normally in the course of an audit, a manager would be available to answer our questions and provide documentation. We had nobody to answer our questions and the documentation was very sparse. We were aware of references in the SKILL programme records and while the travel costs were not set out in terms of air fares and hotels, there were references to the fact that travel had taken place.

We contacted Mr. Merrigan in SIPTU and he was co-operating with us but, as Mr. O'Flynn stated, he had an accident. That was the point at which I contacted SIPTU, which was shocked that the account had existed without its knowledge. Essentially, my correspondence with SIPTU consisted of questions. The HSE's perspective is that it involved an individual operating in his capacity as senior SIPTU official. All correspondence was from his office in Liberty Hall, on SIPTU headed paper and signed in his capacity as national industrial secretary. Cheques from the office for health management, the SKILL programme, etc. were made out to the SIPTU national health and local authority levy fund. From my perspective, it was a SIPTU account. SIPTU has confirmed that it was unauthorised, which nobody could have anticipated.

Following on from that, the HSE gave SIPTU every piece of documentation we came across. I emphasise that the documentation was sparse. We checked everywhere for the documentation. When we got it we handed it over. I arranged for copies of cheques to be provided to SIPTU to show they were made out to the national health and local authority levy fund. Mr. Merrigan provided me with two lever arch boxes of documents, which I also provided to SIPTU. I understand SIPTU has its own view of the matter.