{"id":401190,"date":"2026-04-16T07:13:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T07:13:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/401190\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T07:13:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T07:13:08","slug":"report-on-claims-about-improper-use-of-public-money-at-state-funded-body-sent-to-gardai-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/401190\/","title":{"rendered":"Report on claims about improper use of public money at State-funded body sent to garda\u00ed \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reports on allegations of improper use of public money and noncompliance with legal obligations at a largely State-funded business support agency have been sent to An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na<\/a>, the Revenue Commissioners<\/a> and the Corporate Enforcement Authority<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In a letter to the D\u00e1il Public Accounts Committee the Department of Further and Higher Education<\/a> said an investigation commissioned by Skillnet Ireland <\/a>had upheld several allegations that had been set out in a protected disclosure originally made in September 2023.<\/p>\n

The department said the protected disclosure raised concerns in relation to the operation of one of Skillnet\u2019s business networks. It said the subsequent investigation looked at 15 allegations broken down into 32 sub-parts. <\/p>\n

The department said 10 of these were upheld by the investigation, six were not upheld and that there was insufficient information to make a finding on the remaining 16.<\/p>\n

However, the department said the investigation was significantly constrained in its work due to a persistent lack of co-operation.<\/p>\n

Skillnet Ireland was established in 1999 as an enterprise-led business support agency with a core mission of increasing participation in training and enabling companies to upskill their employees. It has a budget of about \u20ac51 million this year. The Comptroller and Auditor General told the Public Accounts Committee in February that Skillnet \u201creceives almost all of its funding from the [State\u2019s] National Training Fund\u201d.<\/p>\n

The organisation operates through what are known as Skillnet Business Networks, which are focused on specific sectors or regions.<\/p>\n

The department said each network was led by a \u201ccontracting organisation\u201d, which are legal entities in their own right. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe contracting organisation is typically a sectoral organisation, regional body, or industry\/professional organisation and has responsibilities for addressing the skills needs of businesses within its remit.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Department of Further and Higher Education said in correspondence to the Public Accounts Committee the protected disclosure to Skillnet in 2023 had contained \u201callegations of non\u2011compliance with legal obligations, unlawful or improper use of public funds or resources, and concealment or destruction of information relating to these matters.\u201d<\/p>\n

It said an investigation was established into the allegations in 2024. It maintained the contracting organisation for the network \u201cengaged with the investigator through its legal representatives and did not provide the requested documentation\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cSkillnet advise that the investigation was significantly constrained due to persistent non\u2011co-operation by the contracting organisation, refusal to provide key financial records [eg, bank statements], refusal of relevant individuals to participate and no statutory powers to compel evidence.<\/p>\n

\u201cSkillnet advised that the report\u2019s findings were confined to what could be established on the balance of probabilities from the evidence available,\u201d the Department of Further and Higher Education said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSkillnet subsequently confirmed to the department that arising from the findings of their investigation, reports have been submitted to An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na \u2013 in respect of matters that may require criminal examination, Revenue Commissioners \u2013 in relation to matters that may indicate potential tax non\u2011compliance [and] the Corporate Enforcement Authority \u2013 concerning issues that may fall within their corporate governance and compliance remit.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Department of Further and Higher Education said Skillnet was conducting a review of its risk and compliance procedures. <\/p>\n

\u201cSkillnet advised that the findings and recommendations of the investigation will be incorporated into the updates\/changes to its internal procedures,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

In a statement on Wednesday Skillnet said it had not been informed if any of the authorities were now carrying out their own investigations into the issues raised. <\/p>\n

It said the organisation about which allegations had been made was no longer funded by Skillnet Ireland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Reports on allegations of improper use of public money and noncompliance with legal obligations at a largely State-funded…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":401191,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,104960,58340,1346,61,60,11522,79441],"class_list":["post-401190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-corporate-enforcement-authority","tag-department-of-further-and-higher-education-research-innovation-and-science","tag-garda-siochana","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-revenue-commissioners","tag-skillnet-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=401190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401190\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/401191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=401190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=401190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=401190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}