THE former chief executive of the Central Remedial Clinic, Paul Kiely, is "extremely ill" and is not in a position to give evidence before the Dail Public Accounts Committee.

PAC clerk Ted McEnery told the committee that he has been in touch with Mr Kiely's legal representative who has confirmed that the former head of the charity will not be in a position to attend a PAC meeting next Thursday to answer questions over his €742,025 retirement package from the Clontarf clinic.

Referring to Mr Kiely's ill-health, Mr McEnery said: "I think we should accept that and I wish him well."

A report into the clinic by administrator John Cregan published last week said that the CRC set up its charitable arm for the sole purpose of ensuring that it maximised the funding it received from the HSE but the fund was used to pay salary top-ups for senior executives.

Senator Shane Ross said there were a lot of questions for the old board still to answer and that the report into the CRC mentioned missing files "which we ought to ask them about".

Mr McEnery has been in touch with the former board members through a consultant retained on their behalf. However, he admitted to the committee they have not confirmed whether they will be attending.

Mr McEnery has also been in touch with former chairman Jim Nugent as well as former executives David Martin and Brian Conlan asking them to attend.

Mr Ross expressed concern that there might be some doubt about the former CRC board coming in asking: "What's the problem then?"

PAC Chairman John McGuinness, said the only doubt was that the former board members had not replied and said Mr McEnery would check again to determine what witnesses will be before the committee next week.

He said a suggestion had been made that Mr Cregan would represent himself and deal with the report on his own but said he didn't believe that should be the case.

"I believe he should be here with the new chairman and with the other CRC members and HSE and we can deal with this fully and openly and complete our business," he said.

PAC has also written to former chairman Hamilton Goulding asking him to attend and seeking documentation.

Officials from the HSE will also be in attendance.

Meanwhile, the Rehab Group has commenced a process to recruit new board members "as part of a programme of transformation and change".

Applications

The body, which has been rocked by money scandals, is seeking applications from volunteers who would like to serve as company directors.

It has been engulfed in controversy for months, much of which centred around former chief executives Angela Kerins and Frank Flannery.

Group chairman Sean Egan said yesterday: "The Rehab Group is seeking to renew its board membership to ensure that it has in place an effective and robust governance structure that can serve the organisation well into the future. I am confident that there will be many people who are interested in contributing to the important work of Rehab through serving as board members."

Irish Independent