The State training agency Fás is to attempt to recoup some of the money paid to a company that provided “corrupted” courses.
The company, contracted by Fás in the northeast, provided courses to trainees and awarded pass grades to students who had actually failed.
Fás director general Paul O’Toole said this morning the agency would try to recoup the money but felt doing so would be “an uphill battle”.
The case occurred in 2006 and 2007 and the contractor is not now providing training on behalf of the agency.
“The courses that ran in 2008 were perfectly acceptable courses - no issues have arisen in respect of those courses,” Mr O’Toole said.
However, Mr O’Toole told RTÉ radio that a further 10 to 15 courses involving another company in the northeast also under scrutiny.
"We have a number of courses that we are right now scrutinising that we need to ensure that the certification and assessment process stand up," he told Morning Ireland.
Fine Gael’s Fergus O’Dowd who raised the issue in the Dáil yesterday said the company provided seven courses, at a total cost to the taxpayer of more than €1 million made up of company fees and trainee allowances.
“Four of those seven courses. . . were corrupted. The material results were changed, they were fabricated. And the credibility of the awarding of those results goes to the heart of the lack of integrity in Fás, the rottenness that’s in the system from top to bottom.”
Mr O’Dowd later said the issue of another 10 to 15 “corrupt” courses is “very serious indeed” and could result in millions of euro being wasted.
“The minister is ultimately culpable, we can no longer continue to have this appalling waste of money,” he added.
