Irish journalist treated roughly by FAS?

I heard a report that Niall O’Dowd, the New York based publisher of the Irish Voice, was very supportive of the disgraced FAS chief Rody Molloy. According to O’Dowd, Molloy ‘did the State some service’.

That phrase, associated with the corrupt Haughey, always gets my attention but I was puzzled about what possible connection O’Dowd could have to the scandal.

All was revealed in an excellent article by Maeve Sheehan in the Sunday Independent. It seems that O’Dowd is one of the legions of freeloaders who have benefited from the generosity of Irish taxpayer’s on the FAS gravy train.

O’Dowd couldn’t recall if a flight from New York to Houston Texas was paid for by Irish taxpayer’s but, reassuringly, he tells us he didn’t travel business class.

“Frankly, it was a very modest trip. We had dinner at a restaurant near NASA, not a fancy place, and another dinner at an Irish pub.”

What? I’m shocked, such shoddy treatment. Surely this man deserves compensation – an all expenses paid, round the world holiday perhaps?