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FAS, the tainted State job training agency, has uncovered heavy viewing of thousands of porn and "highly inappropriate images" following a trawl of its email system.
"Inappropriate image abuse is current and ongoing," according to a internal audit report seen by the Sunday Independent.
The report found that "the highest source of inappropriate imagery was in outbound emails". It warned that the images "constitute a medium IT and reputational risk". The audit document was given to Fas director general Paul O'Toole in March 2011.
While more than 420,000 Irish people are unemployed and struggling the make ends meet, Fas has been utterly swamped in its attempts to suitably retrain the jobless. The number of long-term unemployed on the Live Register has risen by more than 21 per cent to over 201,000 in the last 18 months as Fas staff ogle porn.
Almost 4 per cent of all reported content in Fas mailboxes was classified as "highly inappropriate".
The images are described as depicting "adult pornography, graphic violence, extreme prejudice or severe injury". The images include "graphic nudity, focus on genitalia or suggestive poses" as well as "sexual acts including foreplay and self-sex". No illegal or child porn was discovered.
The audit found 157 "highly inappropriate images" on Fas emails and another 4,177 "inappropriate images" on its system. This, according to Fas consultants, is not high compared with benchmark figures. Fas said that its staff had not disseminated thousands of of pornographic images.
However some 3,231 images of "partial nudity, full nudity or sexual intercourse" were uncovered with another 1,099 described as "other" and a further four images depicting scenes of "violence".
The problem was not confined to within Fas as the audit discovered that 24 per cent of the images were "identified as being sent from the organisation to external recipients, indicating the area of highest potential reputational risk".
Some 68 per cent of the images were trafficked between Fas staff within the agency. "Internal distribution of inappropriate content may give rise to harassment or bullying claims," the audit warned.
The audit revealed that Fas staff sent dozens of inappropriate images to their peers in the HSE and the Department of Justice, with many others sent to private gmail or hotmail accounts.
Fas staff received inappropriate images contained in emails from the Revenue Commissioners, the Department of Justice, the HSE, South Dublin County Council, Fingal Council, Sligo County Council and Kerry County Council.
"A detailed file has been provided to HR which allows identification of staff by computer account. Contact will be made with appropriate staff by the end of April 2011," according to a management response to the audit.
Fas told the Sunday Independent that "any necessary corrective action was taken and the recommendations of the report were addressed."
In 2006 financial services giant Merrill Lynch sacked 13 of its Dublin staff following a probe into the sending of pornographic emails.
Last year, two female bank officials who had been sacked from Bank of Ireland for circulating emails described as "inappropriate and distasteful" won their cases of unfair dismissal.
The officials were awarded compensation of €66,000 from Bank of Ireland's ICS Building Society.
A bank investigation found what was described as "wholly inappropriate and distasteful" material was being circulated by staff. An Employment Appeals Tribunal found that the Bank of Ireland investigation was "flawed".
