The Dáil Public Accounts Committee (PAC) was entitled to know if the public was getting value for "huge" sums of public money paid to the Rehab Group, the High Court has been told.
That "important" issue has been "overlooked" in the legal challenge by former Rehab Group chief executive Angela Kerins over PAC's hearings concerning those payments, Paul Gallagher SC said.
There appeared to be a suggestion that there could be no inquiry into what happens to public funds once they have been paid out by the Health Service Executive (HSE) but the accounts committee was entitled to assess if the HSE was getting value for money. The basis on which the HSE paid those monies provides for monitoring and information, including information on salaries and PAC was entitled to monitor what the HSE was doing.
Because a high proportion of the expenses of Rehab and other bodies went on salaries, those were also relevant to an inquiry into the HSE’s use of money, counsel said. While there may be an argument as to “how deep you go”, the matter was “certainly relevant”.
When asked by Mr Justice Seamus Noonan about the relevance of questions from PAC members concerning whether Ms Kerins had any involvement with her husband in a coffin business or if she had damaged Rehab, Mr Gallagher said governance issues were involved and he would address such matters later.
A “very deliberate” decision was made by Ms Kerins to attend a PAC hearing on February 27th, 2014, which was viewed as an opportunity to deal with matters already in the public domain and advance Rehab’s views in that regard, he said.
Prior to the PAC hearings, there was an audit of the charitable lotteries scheme which had found deficiencies that were not followed up on, counsel said.
Mr Gallagher was continuing his arguments on behalf of PAC in the hearing over the committee’s jurisdiction to conduct two hearings, on February 27th and April 10th, 2014. A three-judge court – comprising the President of the High Court, Mr Justice Peter Kelly, Mr Justice Seamus Noonan and Ms Justice Isobel Kennedy – has been asked to decide the jurisdictional issues before any other issues are addressed.
Ms Kerins claims the conduct of the hearings was outside PAC’s jurisdiction and unlawful. She is claiming damages on grounds including alleged personal injury, loss of reputation and loss of career.
In opposing her case, PAC argues it has an important democratic function to rigorously scrutinise expenditure of public funds. On grounds including the absolute privilege of the Oireachtas, it argues the courts should not intervene as Ms Kerins seeks.
The hearing will resume on October 4th.
