Mr. Jim Nugent:

Thank you, Chairman. The Central Remedial Clinic is over 60 years in existence for the provision of many complex services for disabled persons. The HSE contracts with the CRC to provide clinical services and the Department of Education and Science contracts with the CRC for school-based educational services for disabled persons. For the first nine months of this year alone the CRC had 3,561 clients with attendances of 55,571 accounting for 105,333 interventions. The CRC has 278 staff based over a number of locations in Dublin and also in Waterford and Limerick.

The three core values of the organisation have been and still are: 1. No child will be turned away; 2. No family will be charged; and, 3. The CRC sets out to assist each child to achieve his or her potential. We are very pleased to be here at your invitation, Chairman, and we welcome the opportunity to establish the facts and dispel some of the myths that have been circulating. The core issue we want to address today concerns the remuneration arrangements of a number of senior managers. It has been said in some quarters that the levels of remuneration were set without the knowledge of the HSE. The facts are as follows. The CRC was, and still is, contractually bound by employment contracts to pay salaries that subsequently were in excess of those determined unilaterally by the HSE in 2009. At a meeting with HSE top officials in June 2009 - David Martin was one of the directors who attended the meetings - the CRC presented its case that it had these contractual arrangements, an issue which the Minister, Deputy Howlin, acknowledged recently exists in other agencies. The HSE indicated it could only fund salaries as unilaterally determined by it and subsequently notified the CRC. The CRC said that it would pay the balance from its own resources and in November of 2009 wrote to the HSE to that effect. The CRC further confirmed that when management posts concerned fall to be replaced through retirement or resignation, the salary of the incoming replacement will be discussed and agreed with the HSE. This information is confirmed in correspondence with the HSE.

The issue today centres around a meeting with the HSE in 2009. Following that meeting, all parties were clear on the arrangements in place for the remuneration in question. My colleague, David Martin, attended that meeting and I believe it is important to hear a first-hand account of what happened at the time. Following his contribution, we will be pleased to take any questions committee members may have.