Tipperary councillor rejects claims made in RTÉ Investigates report

A Clonmel councillor has described an RTÉ Investigates report into a company he established to host training weekends for local politicians as “a blatant attempt to discredit me.”
A report on RTÉ’s website claims that the company, which traded as the Institute of Professional Training (IPT) had been removed by Quality and Qualifications Ireland (QQI), the State agency that regulates training providers, from its register of accredited training providers as far back as November 2014.
The RTÉ Investigates report states that more than 700 councillors from around the country, who attended around 50 IPT seminars from 2015 to 2019, were led to believe that the institute’s seminars were accredited.
Under Section 67 of the Qualifications and Quality Assurance (Education and Training) Act 2012, it is an offence for a provider to provide an enrolled learner with information that is false or misleading in a material sense, according to the RTÉ report.
However, Cllr Dennehy, a former Mayor of Clonmel, denies the claims by RTÉ that he wrongly claimed QQI State accreditation.
“In politics, there is an old saying: ‘if they try to discredit you, you must be getting at them’,” he stated this week.
“I was a director of a company, the IPPB, that provided training which ceased trading in 2019, as it wasn’t financially viable.
“The majority of the IPPB’s business was repeat customers, and as far as the IPPB were aware most, if not all, gave very positive feedback on our report card to their local authority.
“None of the IPPB attendees were told a QQI Qualification would be issued following their weekend attendance, nor were they issued with a QQI certificate.
“Given that the majority of the attendees were repeat customers, it’s unrealistic to suggest they came back the following year expecting a cert, having not gotten one the previous year.”

Cllr Dennehy, who was elected to Tipperary County Council as an Independent in 2019, having campaigned against the abolition of Clonmel Borough Council and South Tipperary County Council in 2014, said he wouldn’t be making any further comment at this juncture, due to ongoing legal considerations.

However, when contacted by The Nationalist, RTÉ stated: “RTÉ Investigates stands over its story, which was published on RTÉ.ie following months of investigation.

"RTÉ Investigates made several attempts to contact Councillor Dennehy and gave him a number of opportunities to respond in advance of publication, but he failed to engage.

"The story about a training provider who wrongly claimed his training courses were state accredited, continues to be available to the public to read on the RTÉ website.”

The RTÉ Investigates report also stated that QQI’s award programmes are validated for a maximum period of five years, after which providers can apply for revalidation, on the condition that the programme was active during that period.
“QQI explained that its decision to remove the IPT from its register of providers in November 2014 ‘was based on the Institute not meeting the conditions of recent certification of learners and for not validating a programme of education and training',” according to the RTÉ report.

Cllr Dennehy has recently called for a referendum asking the public if they agreed with the decision to abolish South Tipperary County Council and Clonmel Borough Council seven years ago.

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