2 Iúil 2014, 16:32
Representatives from the Central Remedial Clinic, its former board, and the Health Service Executive will appear before the Committee of Public Accounts tomorrow, Thursday 3 July as the Committee resumes its consideration of top-up payments to executives.
2 July 2014
HSE
- Laverne McGuinness - Chief Operations Officer and Deputy Director General
- Pat Healy – National Director, Social Care
- John Cregan, Interim Administrator CRC (former)
Central Remedial Clinic
- Kieran Timmins – Chairman
- Stephanie Manahan – CEO
- Hamilton Goulding – former Chairman
Department of Public Expenditure and Reform
- Peter Brazel
- Stephen Owens
On the agenda will be the report by the HSE-appointed interim administrator John Cregan and the governance issues it highlighted, particularly in relation to the non-compliance of the CRC with HSE remuneration policy.
Committee Chairman John McGuinness says: “Since PAC meetings on the issue of top-up payments made to senior voluntary hospital executives in late 2013, there has been ongoing media and public interest in the CRC in particular. At tomorrow’s meeting, we will have an opportunity to consider the report by CRC administrator John Cregan, which raised a number of key accountability issues which include level of pay at Executive level and the decisions to ignore the HSE; the splitting of the executive payroll between HSE and private funds, and the use of charitable donations to fund an exit package for the former CEO and also to plug the deficit in the CRC pension scheme.
“It should be noted that the report by Mr Cregan underlined that the CRC was on the whole a well-run body with the exception of a number of governance issues, served by an excellent staff. The Committee are keen that, with a new CRC board in place, these legacy issues are dealt with comprehensively to allow the institution to move on from this controversy and continue its valuable work for those clients it has served so well.”
It is expected that lessons in the report for wider financial oversight for the HSE will also be discussed. Deputy McGuinness continues: “There are clearly lessons for the HSE in terms of its oversight of all voluntary bodies, and in this respect the Committee will be keen to assess how its procedures can be enhanced. The Cregan Report highlights the deficiencies in the HSE funding model, which did not directly link costs and the specified outputs and prices.
“The multiplicity of arrangements between the CRC and the HSE is also the subject of concern and the Committee will wish to explore how the HSE is proposing to manage Section 38 bodies more robustly into the future. The Committee approaches tomorrow’s meeting cognisant of the role voluntary bodies can play in the delivery and development of services, especially in the area of disability services and of the need to nurture those bodies so that they continue doing the excellent work that they are doing.”
The meeting commences at 10 am tomorrow 3 July in Committee Room 1, LH 2000. Committee proceedings can be followed live here.
Committee proceedings can also be viewed on the move, through the Houses of the Oireachtas Smartphone App, available for Apple and Android devices.
Media enquiries to:
Ciaran Brennan,
Houses of the Oireachtas,
Communications Unit,
Leinster House,
Dublin 2
P: +3531 618 3903
M: 086-0496518
F: +3531 618 4551
Committee of Public Accounts Membership
John McGuinness (Chairman)
Kieran O’Donnell (Vice Chairman)
Paul J Connaughton,
John Deasy,
Áine Collins
Gerald Nash,
Simon Harris,
Robert Dowds,
Mary Lou McDonald,
Sean Fleming,
Eoghan Murphy,
Derek Nolan,
Shane Ross