The Central Remedial Clinic’s accounts department has “no record” of any repayments made by Paul Kiely after the former chief executive was urged to give back some of his €741,000 severance package last year.
Many Government and Opposition politicians, including then minister for health James Reilly, said the charity should pursue Mr Kiely and other senior figures after a report published in June exposed serious flaws in CRC pay policies.
The report said Mr Kiely’s severance package, paid to him after he resigned in 2013, was incorrectly calculated according to his “overstated” pay.
Mr Kiely was in receipt of an annual salary of €234,449 even after public sector pay cuts in 2010 meant this should have fallen below €200,000.
His pay should have been in line to drop another €14,578 under the Haddington Road pact.
In June, the Health Service Executive signalled it wanted to see the repayment of any excess money paid to Mr Kiely.
No records
In response to a freedom-of- information request from
The Irish Times
, the CRC said there were “no records” to suggest any money had been received from Mr Kiely, who is now believed to be living in the UK.
A clinic spokeswoman said directors are continuing to liaise with Mr Kiely over “legacy issues” following his retirement two years ago.
“The board of directors of the CRC are currently in an ongoing process with Mr Kiely regarding legacy issues resulting from his retirement and due to this are not in a position to comment on this matter at this moment,” she said.
Efforts to contact Mr Kiely proved unsuccessful.
His case was widely publicised when the charity “top-ups” scandal broke in 2013. *
Opposition TDs have now reissued calls for him to pay back a portion of the severance package, along with any excess wages paid to him..
‘Failure of judgment’
“It is deplorable that there are no records of Mr Kiely having made any repayments,” Fianna Fáil health spokesman Billy Kelleher said.
“The fact that CRC bosses decided to spend almost half of one year’s voluntary contributions to personally enrich one of them illustrated an appalling failure of judgment.”
Sinn Féin health spokesman Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin said the situation was “wholly unacceptable” and urged the CRC to continue to pursue the matter.
The Department of Health declined to comment.
The Irish Times also attempted to gain access to correspondence between the CRC and Mr Kiely in relation to legacy issues following his retirement.
However, the request was denied on several grounds, one of which stated that releasing the records might prove “inimical” to the process of dealing with past or ongoing issues “effectively and efficiently”.
Some charities reported a drop of 40 per cent in public donations in the crucial Christmas fundraising period directly after the controversy broke.
They cited trust issues caused by the use of donated funds to top up executive salaries as a major contributory factor.
* This article was amended on Monday, September 14th, 2015.
