Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

The announcement was made yesterday of the resignation of the director general of FÁS. The Government will launch another committee today to deal with cutting down the waste of taxpayers' money. The Taoiseach has 33 Ministers and this is their function. He has cast doubts on the judgment of others in this House, but the only two people who did not seem to realise that something was radically wrong in FÁS were the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste.

Is the Taoiseach fully aware of what has gone on in this organisation? Many years ago he was Minister for Labour and dealt with it then. I have flight records for a round the world trip from Dublin to Frankfurt, Tokyo, Honolulu and San Francisco, and back to Frankfurt and Dublin at a cost of €12,000 of taxpayers' money. I have the records of a major hotel in Dublin, with a booking costing €29,000 for a two and a half week stay. Two banquets were held in the hotel on the same day, one of which cost €8,000 and the other €9,000. I want to make it clear that when this country does business internationally, we expect to measure up to the standards that are required. However, the Taoiseach is in charge of this and what has gone on here is the gross abuse and reckless expenditure of public moneys.

Every Deputy in this House is visited by people on community employment schemes and so on who are trying to get back on FÁS schemes. However, things seem to have gone completely out of control at the top. Can the Taoiseach respond on his own judgment of the director general and his defence of his position? He has representatives on the board, appointed by different Ministers and Departments.

We are now at what I would call a "values revolution", where the taxpayers' money has to be respected as much, if not more, than individual money. The Taoiseach has responsibility for this. In view of the importance of FÁS in the years ahead, does he now believe that the board members should consider their positions?

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