‘Fraud Squad probes HSE missing millions’ roars the headline on the front page of the Irish Independent this morning as news emerges of yet another example of flagrant misuse of funds by a state body. According to the report in the Independent, €2.35 million set aside for a training scheme for low-skilled health workers was instead used to fund overseas trips for officials from the Department of Health and the Department of finance.
The face of Ivor Callely also adorns the Indo’s front page, accompanied by the headline, ‘I broke no rules, says defiant Callely’, after the beleaguered senator claimed yesterday before a Seanad inquiry that he did nothing wrong in claiming a whopping €80,000 in travel expenses for a home 370km away from his constituency.
The HSE story is also touched on in the Irish Times, but plays second fiddle to a report about Barack Obama’s plans to radically alter the financial system in the United States. ‘Obama gets backing for radical overhaul of Wall Street’, headlines a story about how Obama intends to implement the most far reaching package of financial reforms since the Great Depression ahead of the G20 summit in Canada this weekend.
“This weekend in Toronto, I hope we can build on this progress by co-ordinating our efforts to promote economic growth, to pursue financial reform, and to strengthen the global economyâ€, said the president on the White House lawn before boarding a helicopter bound for the summit.
More Calleley talk on the front of the Irish Examiner, who break the senator’s expenses claims down into simpler terms, reporting that Calleley claimed €140 a night on hundreds of occasions when attending the Seanad, even though he stayed in his Clontarf residence on the nights in question. Callely defended himself saying, “I think it’s called subsistence. So it’s not necessarily that you have a hotelâ€. Quite what he needed the €140 a day for remains a mystery.
