A former chief executive of the Central Remedial Clinic, Paul Kiely, received a total retirement package of more than €740,000 when he left the organisation last year, significantly higher than previously revealed publicly.
A report drawn up by the new HSE-appointed interim administrator of the organisation and given yesterday to the Dáil Public Accounts Committee said the money for the retirement payments came from the fund-raising arm of the CRC, the Friends and Supporters group.
It said this was the equivalent of almost half its annual income.
The report, produced by John Cregan, said that in addition to his salary, Mr Kiely received a tax-free payment of €200,000 when he left the CRC last June, as well as a taxable payment of €273,336.
The report said that, in addition, “an amount of €268,689 was paid to [pension consultants] Mercers to ensure that Mr Kiely’s pension/lump sum benefits would not be less than if Mr Kiely had continued to remain on as chief executive until November 2016”.
The Public Accounts Committee had previously only been given details by the CRC of the €200,000 tax-free lump sum payment to Mr Kiely on his retirement.
The Cregan report said that at about the time these payments were made, an amount of €700,000 was paid in two instalments, of €450,000 and €250,000, by the Friends and Supporters of the CRC in what draft internal accounts described as a donation.
No 'donation' approval
"The minutes of the Friends and Supporters do not record an approval for this 'donation' – which represents almost half of its annual income – by the board of directors.
“The payments to Mr Kiely could not have been made by the CRC if the €700,000 had not been received from the Friends and Supporters.”
The report said that these retirement arrangements for Mr Kiely raised a number of serious matters.
It said that the CRC’s memorandum of association allowed its income to be applied for payments of reasonable and proper remuneration of any officer in return for services actually rendered.
The report maintained that the payment of ex gratia amounts of the magnitude paid in this case would not appear to be in line with the memorandum of association.
The HSE national director of human resources Barry O’Brien said that in his view, the scale of the retirement package for Mr Kiely was not reasonable or proper.
He said the provision of the €700,000 payments from the Friends and Supporters of the CRC was separate to a €3 million loan which the body had given to the main CRC organisation to shore up pension arrangements for about 70 personnel.
The most recent chief executive of the CRC, Brian Conlan, who resigned last month – and who had previously been a board member of the organisation for eight years – told the committee yesterday that he only became aware of the full extent of Mr Kiely's retirement package yesterday.
Mr Conlan agreed that the decision by the CRC board to approve his predecessor’s pension payment had been wrong and he was shocked by what had happened.
He said the practice of making top-up payments from charitable sources was wrong and should cease. However, he said he could understand why these things had come about.
Mr Conlan was strongly criticised by members of the committee about his evidence.
'Pure dynamite'
Fine Gael TD Kieran O'Donnell said that report by Mr Cregan into Mr Kiely's retirement package was "pure dynamite" and that the money raised from ordinary people by the Friends and Supporters was used as a slush fund by senior management in the CRC.
Independent TD Shane Ross questioned Mr Conlan about travel costs for the CRC group.
He listed Nashville, Tennessee; Orlando, Florida (twice); Buenos Aires, Argentina; New Delhi, India; and Vancouver, Canada (twice), plus another planned trip there in March this year.
Mr Ross said the CRC was “extremely generous“ in granting trips to conferences abroad.
