AN employee at the centre of an internal investigation into the misallocation of housing at Dublin City Council has claimed she was only doing what she was told.

Last week the Sunday Tribune revealed that several misallocations of housing were discovered during an internal investigation. The city council has since revealed that another six "irregular" cases were uncovered.

Now convinced she will lose her job, the employee, formerly based in the allocations section, has said she does not want to be scapegoated for what she says is a widespread culture.

A trawl of files uncovered six cases of housing being misallocated through the urgent medical priority system for which the new tenants did not qualify.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the employee said that colleagues "would have representations from certain [politicians] and they would say we need to look at this case. They would take people further down the list [and move them forward]. It was definitely the culture; it was the culture before I went in there and it was the culture after I left. I can point to allocations that they have done. They have used the system to house their family and friends. People do favours for people. I am being hung out to dry and scapegoated and I refuse to be."

The woman admits her role in the misallocation of housing but insists she did it on instructions and that she did not profit from it.

She agreed to speak to the Sunday Tribune in the interest of pushing for a full, independent investigation into practices in the allocation section.

The woman also concedes that her claims are made in the wake of personal arguments, a failure to gain promotion, an investigation into her professional conduct and an independent grievance procedure which was initiated by her but which largely failed to uphold her complaints.

However, she asks, if she was guilty of serious breaches, why was she transferred to another department instead of being disciplined?

Council officials declined to be interviewed, nor would they answer questions put to them in regard to the woman's claims.

"There are statutory procedures under which management must deal with staff matters," a council spokesman said in a statement. "As these procedures have not concluded it is not possible to deal with the issues raised." A council debate on the issue has been scheduled for next month.

The internal investigation into housing allocations has already confirmed a deeply flawed system. A summary recently given to a council audit committee stated in relation to medical priority cases: "There is no evidence of an official sign-off by the chief medical officer to indicate approval or rejection of medical priority status."

It also found: "The Housing and Residential Services Department procured the services of the two current chief medical officers without reference to Dublin City Council's policy on procurement."

The report's recommendations suggested a much more thorough inspection of applications and the creation of a comprehensive paper trail to prevent further mismanagement.

However, for some, this should not be the end of the process. Last Monday, independent councillor Mannix Flynn tabled an emergency motion calling for an independent inquiry into housing allocations.

In response, city manager John Tierney said investigations involving staff members were a matter for management and human resources.

Commenting on the investigation, he said in a statement to the council: "The report highlighted misallocations in six cases. They recommended that certain issues pertaining to staff involvement be further pursued.

"The internal audit team had found six cases of misallocation and recommended a number of other priority cases be examined by the housing department. This was done and a further six irregular cases were found."