People should be forthcoming with information about income in the charity sector when public money was involved, said Taoiseach Enda Kenny.
He was responding to questions from journalists at the ardfheis on the request made by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to Frank Flannery to reveal the terms of his pension from Rehab, where he served as chief executive, and details of consultancy work undertaken while a board member, a position he still holds.
Mr Flannery is a long-time Fine Gael strategist and a close associate of the Taoiseach.
Asked if he would encourage Mr Flannery to go before the committee, as it had requested, Mr Kenny repeated that where public money was involved in charities, people should be forthcoming about details of salaries and so on.
Speaking on the Marian Finucane programme on RTÉ Radio 1 yesterday, Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport Leo Varadkar said he believed Mr Flannery should attend a PAC hearing.
Rehab board member
Mr Flannery was in Leinster House last Thursday but did not attend the
committee meeting with Rehab representatives, including chief executive Angela Kerins. He attended the weekend ardfheis.
Committee chairman and Fianna Fáil TD John McGuinness has said the committee members were prepared to call Rehab back for another hearing if it failed to hand over information sought on pensions and bonus payments to senior executives.
Meanwhile, the ardfheis passed a motion supporting same-sex marriage.
Progressive agenda
The Cork South Central TD and chairman of the party's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender
group, Jerry Buttimer, said Fine Gael was an inclusive party, with a strong tradition of advancing a progressive social agenda.
“Ahead of the referendum next year, I look forward to discussing the merits of marriage equality at length with both my Fine Gael colleagues and those outside the party.”
Mr Buttimer said that as a gay man and a member of Fine Gael, it made him tremendously proud to see party delegates not only choose to endorse the motion in support of marriage equality, but to endorse it overwhelmingly.
He added that there had been a considerable level of debate about the issue of homophobia in recent weeks.
“In my view, the debate about extending marriage rights to gay people is not about homophobia, or even about the institution of marriage itself, but about equality.”
Mr Buttimer said he hoped the strong support for marriage equality, evident at the ardfheis, would be replicated on referendum day.
