THE OIREACHTAS PUBLIC money watchdog has sent two strongly-worded letters to Angela Kerins and Frank Flannery over their no-show, criticising the two former Rehab executives for their actions.
The Public Accounts Committee sent the letters tonight following an emergency session after both Kerins and Flannery refused to appear tomorrow to answer further questions about Rehab.
Independent TD Shane Ross, who is a member of the PAC, said both are likely to be invited before the committee one more time before the ‘nuclear option’ is considered.
The letter to Flannery in particular is extremely critical: it says that Flannery’s reasons for not attending the PAC are “nothing short of contemptible”.
Flannery’s accusation about some members of the PAC nursing a political grudge against him is described as one of a number of “very serious and utterly unmeritorious accusations” which the PAC denies.
The letter, sent to Flannery through his solicitors, states:
The matters which fall to be examined by the Committee, being the use by Rehab of approximately €83 million of public monies annually, are matters in respect of which the taxpayer, through the Committees [sic] examinations, is entitled to transparency and full accountability.
Your client now appears, on the eve of the Committees [sic] hearing, to have a “difficulty in attending” and the reasons given are nothing short of contemptible.
Read the full Frank Flannery letter here
The letter to Kerins, who stepped down as CEO of Rehab last week, notes that she is not attending tomorrow due to in-health.
“On her full recovery, and if required, the Committee hopes that your client will be in a position to continue to assist it in its examination of the use by Rehab of approximately €83 million of taxpayers’ monies annually,” the letter to Kerins’s solicitors says.
The letter also dismisses Kerins’s complaint that she had to speak for a long time at the last committee meeting without a break.
“Your reference to the length of the proceedings, being seven hours with a break, during which seven people, of which your client was one, gave evidence was unfair is unfortunate as it is the standard practice of the Committee to facilitate any person requiring a break in proceeding when so requested by that person”.
Read the full Angela Kerins letter here
Both letters end by saying the PAC will continue to examine the entire Rehab matter and may require more evidence from both Flannery and Kerins in the near future.
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