Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)

Yesterday I spoke about the use of the Government jet by the spouses of Ministers or Ministers of State. I made specific reference to the Minister for Health and Children, who was accompanied by her spouse in the incident mentioned by Deputy Gilmore. That trip was under the aegis of FÁS, and we know that there was much controversy in the fall out from the trip, including the personal services expenses paid by the platinum card of Mr. Greg Craig, the director of public affairs at FÁS. That created much controversy at the time and led to the resignation of the CEO, Mr. Rody Molloy. Arising out of what some believe is the inappropriate use of the Government jet, I asked the Taoiseach if any new guidelines were to be introduced by him to lay out his expected best practice approach to the use of the jet. He stated that he did not believe that this was necessary.

On the basis of all that was demonstrated by that Florida trip, have any new guidelines for Ministers and Ministers of State been drawn up in order to ensure that best practice applies to gifts, services and other expenditure by the State agencies? What guarantee have we that what was discovered about the FÁS trip has not been replicated in other situations across other Departments and State agencies? What level of oversight and scrutiny is currently in place? Following the exposure of the practices within FÁS that led to the resignation of its CEO, has the Taoiseach taken steps to insist on best practice across the board? Given what was exposed on the Florida trip, does the Taoiseach accept that there is a culture that needs to be addressed? Will he address it?

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