HSE takes legal advice on payments to ex head of CRC

The HSE has said it has significant concerns about whether the former board of the Central Remedial Clinic (CRC) adhered to company law and other legislative provisions when it authorised the payment of a €740,000 retirement package for its former chief executive, Paul Kiely, last year.

The health authority, which appointed an interim administrator to run the CRC after the board resigned last month, said it had taken legal advice from senior counsel and was not ruling out looking for the return of the money or else seeking the advice or assistance of the Garda in relation to the matter.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny said last night he was appalled by yesterday's revelations at the Dáil Public Accounts Committee (PAC) about the retirement package provided by the CRC to Mr Kiely. He said it was indicative of a time in Irish politics that he hoped was long gone.

'Obviously known'
Mr Kenny said the information on the retirement payments "was obviously known to people" when a previous PAC hearing took place before Christmas, "and some analysis by the HSE determined that what was told to the Public Accounts Committee and to the Irish people was not, in fact, the truth".

PAC members were given details of Mr Kiely’s package in a report drawn up by the interim administrator. The committee had previously been told only of a €200,000 lump sum payment made to him on his retirement last June after 24 years as chief executive.

The report said Mr Kiely received a €200,000 tax-free lump sum and a further €273,336 in a taxable payment. The report by interim administrator John Cregan said that on top of this “an amount of €268,689 was paid to [pension consultants] Mercer to ensure that Mr Kiely’s pension/lump sum benefits would not be less than if Mr Kiely had continued to remain on as chief executive until November 2016”.

Strong criticism was expressed by committee members that the money for the retirement package came from the fundraising arm of the CRC.

Two instalments
The interim administrator's report said that at about the time of the payments to Mr Kiely, €700,000 was paid by the Friends and Supporters of the CRC to the main CRC organisation in two instalments of €450,000 and €250,000, in what was described in draft internal accounts as a "donation".

The report said that this €700,000 sum represented almost half of the annual income of the fundraising organisation. It stated: “The minutes of the Friends and Supporters does not record an approval for this donation by the board of directors.”

It said the payments to Mr Kiely could not have been made by the CRC if the €700,000 sum had not been received from the Friends and Supporters organisation.

The report by Mr Cregan suggested that payments of an ex gratia sum of the magnitude of the amount paid to Mr Kiely would not appear to be in line with the memorandum of association of the CRC.