NEITHER ANGELA KERINS nor Frank Flannery will appear before the Oireachtas public money watchdog tomorrow despite repeated calls for them to attend.
Kerins’s solicitors told the Public Accounts Committee that she has turned down the invitation to attend due to ill health, while Flannery said he had retired in 2006 and had no involvement in recent events. Flannery said he was also concerned that some members of the committee had a political axe to grind.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny was among those who had said that both the former chief executive and former board member of the beleagured Rehab Group should answer further questions about its finances before the PAC.
In a strongly-worded statement, Flannery said that he wanted to attend tomorrow’s PAC meeting but had “no alternative but to decline to attend”, citing a “partisan political agenda”.
Flannery said that some members of the PAC had indicated already that it was their intention “to go far beyond their remit” and “raise personal matters that are not relevant to the committees [sic] work”.
He added:
Some members do not seem to be taking into account the basic fundamental rights of a private citizen under natural and constitutional justice.
He said that he had not been involved with the issues the PAC said it wanted to deal with, since he had retired eight years ago.
Independent TD Shane Ross, who is a member of the PAC, was not happy with the response from Kerins and Flannery.
A number of other members of the Rehab board will be speaking before the PAC tomorrow, but it is reported that they have been instructed not to reveal any details of salaries or pensions.
The meeting is due to begin at 10am tomorrow.
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