Ms Angela Kerins:

I thank the Chairman and members for giving me the opportunity to address the committee. For almost 70 years the Rehab Group has been at the forefront in providing support and services for people with disabilities and others who need support. It was established as an independent not-for-profit organisation with the purpose of promoting equality and fighting disadvantage through quality services and initiatives. We are here on a voluntary basis following an invitation to assist the committee to understand the type, volume and outcomes of the services we provide from payments from the HSE and SOLAS and to clarify the nature of the charity lottery compensation fund.

I want to state clearly at the outset that ours is not a State-run organisation, nor is any of our staff a public servant. Our staff do not have access to public pension funds and, like any other independent organisation, we are responsible for paying all our own bills. Our contracts with Government agencies, otherwise called, as the committee has heard, service level agreements, SLAs, are of one year duration and often less - about four months - and we have no guarantees from Departments to cover our deficits.

Many people will not be aware that the Rehab Group is made up of a number of charities and commercial companies in Ireland, England, Scotland, Wales, Poland, the Netherlands and now the Middle East. We are headquartered in Dublin and employ over 3,500 people. We reinvest any profit back into our services, in projects which benefit individuals with disabilities and social initiatives. We also provide support for other disability organisations, both nationally and internationally.

In addition to what members will hear from my colleagues whose divisions contract with the HSE and SOLAS, we are Ireland's largest glass recycler, processing 96,000 tonnes of glass each year, 10,000 tonnes of electronic equipment and 2,400 tonnes of aluminium. We also operate a number of retail shops and logistic facilities, including warehousing, assembly, work-wear manufacturing, keyboard printing, document scanning and destruction and packaging facilities. We are also the largest employer of people with disabilities in Ireland and working not only to maintain these jobs but also to increase the number of jobs here every year.

We have grown from small beginnings to become a major Irish company, with over 2,300 employees in Ireland and a further 1,200 internationally. We face the same challenges as all other companies and charities owing to difficult economic environments, changes in market conditions and the need to attract highly able and skilled staff. In all of this activity we affect the lives of some 60,000 clients group-wide, including 11,300 individuals the length and breadth of Ireland. Each of our clients is someone's child, brother, sister, parent or friend. Our ethos is to help our clients achieve their potential, live and work as independently as possible and promote their skills and abilities. Rehab supports people with every kind of disability, as well as people with mental health difficulties. Those who are unemployed who need additional help to get back to work are also assisted.

The clients of our services include children with autism who need respite care or after-school services. We support young people who have challenging behaviour and can no longer live at home, perhaps having spent time in an inappropriate placement in psychiatric care. Our day services give support to people with intellectual disabilities to plan their goals and support them in their achievements, be it getting a job, learning how to cook or moving into their own home. We provide highly specialised support for people whose lives have been turned upside down by a catastrophic brain injury following an accident or a stroke. We help them to relearn the skills they need to live independently. We help people for whom a mental health difficulty or a setback in life has meant that they cannot continue in their career and need help to rebuild their confidence and skills, retrain and get back into the workplace.

We are proud of what we do and how we do it. We are most proud of the achievements of our clients. Ours is known, both nationally and internationally, as an entrepreneurial "can do" and innovative organisation, willing to take risks for our clients, to enable them to live as full a life as possible, and we do this while, at the same time, thankfully, giving value for money to our customers.

As I understand it, the remit of this committee is to review public expenditure and to ensure that the State is getting value for money and that services are delivered efficiently. I will take this opportunity to thank the HSE and SOLAS for their positive comments regarding our services. In addition to the review of Government spend on services provided through the National Learning Network, NLN, and RehabCare, the committee has a great opportunity today to commence an important conversation regarding service provision.

There are some 2,932 not-for-profit agencies delivering services to the HSE at a cost of €3.46 billion in 2012. The HSE is committed to ensuring value for money and has undertaken a number of measures to do so. We support it in this goal. There is potential to get even more value for money while building capacity, innovating and improving outcomes for clients. It is the view of the Rehab Group that the coming together of these organisations could release funding to help deliver more services for clients. Mergers would enable many organisations to build operational capacity, further reducing overheads by sharing technology and assets and creating a more flexible, exciting and sustainable future. By sharing, organisations can focus their resources and capabilities, thereby enhancing service delivery. Over a period of time, savings of approximately €200 million per annum could be achieved, which could then be applied to the development of new and additional services for the many thousands of children and adults with disabilities who are currently in need. With funding such as this, significant progress could be made on the implementation of the Disability Act, providing an independent assessment of needs for all children and adults with disabilities and much-needed therapies, residential and respite services. Were the Government to lead a positive and proactive partnership project to bring together those organisations of similar ethos that could be merged, the Rehab Group and other not-for-profits would rally behind it and give any assistance that we could.

Our structure is unusual and we are unique, but that makes us no less valuable or effective. Our independence helps us articulate the needs of our clients and our financial independence allows us to invest in new ideas and services. Our independence has allowed us to defend the ethos of our organisation and our ability to do our job for our clients.

The committee's letter of invitation for today specifically mentioned three areas it wished to discuss: services delivered on behalf of the HSE, services delivered on behalf of SOLAS and the charity lottery compensation fund. Rehab fulfils a major role in the provision of services and we value our strong and robust working relationships with the HSE and SOLAS. There is a great deal of confusion in the public mind as to how independent not-for-profit companies such as ours receive funding from the public purse. The two main Rehab Group companies that contract with the State are RehabCare and NLN, which are represented at this meeting by their respective executive directors, Ms Laura Keane and Ms Marie Kelly. We have provided all of the detailed information that both contracting organisations require, including details of salaries and other costs. Mr. John McGuire, who is a director of Rehab Lotteries, is also present to help with the discussion on the charity lottery compensation fund and the unfair cap on charity lotteries. We have attended this meeting at short notice to provide support to the committee in its examination of public expenditure in these areas, but we have also attended to clear up some misleading information regarding our lottery business and its related income.

I wish to mention the issue of salaries, which has been given some media space in recent months. The salaries of the Rehab Group's chief executive and management team are set by the board following advice from independent remuneration experts as to the rate for those jobs in the market. This team oversees not just one charity but an international group of charities, commercial companies, joint ventures and limited liability partnerships. We are also involved at policy level and are recognised internationally as experts in our field. Such a diverse organisation needs expert management capable of operating across this wide domain.

While I am not privy to all of the deliberations of the Rehab Group board, I am aware of the methodology used. Each job is evaluated by size, function and the sector in which it has relevance. There is a comprehensive scoring system and the comparators are from a representative sample of private sector, State and semi-State companies. This system works out the market median, that is, the salary level in the middle of the market. For well over a decade, all senior salaries in the Rehab Group have been advised by independent assessment and set in the median. While the market median is the desired Rehab Group position, however, the group management team has been at least 20% below that level for total remuneration for some years. I can go through this methodology in more detail later if the committee so wishes.

Regarding the specific State contracts being discussed at this meeting, all relevant details of the management salaries of the companies that contract with the HSE have been made available on a confidential basis to the HSE and are compliant with public pay guidelines of the funding agency. For clarity, the salary of the Rehab Group's chief executive is not being paid out of the funding under discussion.

In seeking to provide information about salaries, Rehab needed time to take legal advice on the matter of further disclosures and has also received advice from the Data Protection Commissioner about salary disclosures, as we are subject to the data protection legislation and the right of individuals to privacy. In response to calls for the remuneration of the group's chief executive to be disclosed, these rights were waived by me and Rehab in order that this could be done. We are now considering ways of publishing other salary data. This would give salary band information to those interested. Taking into consideration the size and needs of the organisation, we aim to have this in place by the end of the year.

There has been much comment on this matter, on market rates for salaries and, indeed, on the unique structure of the Rehab Group. Many have acknowledged this and the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Varadkar, recently used the analogy that Rehab was more like a semi-state company. It is not a bad comparison. We have a turnover similar to semi-State organisations and employ close to the average in the semi-State sector. It is interesting to examine the 2011 McCarthy report on State assets, which found that the average salary was €291,000 and the average total remuneration package was €439,767 within the ten semi-State organisations reviewed.

In going about our business and dealing with our challenges, we must re-examine our corporate structures and seek to develop a structure that is easier for everyone to understand while providing for our complexities. This is currently under way. Although it will undoubtedly be challenging, it should result in more clarity for everyone about who we are and how we operate.

The last few weeks have taken a heavy toll on the wider Rehab Group, our clients, our staff and their families. We have wondered what we have done wrong. We do not recognise the picture of the Rehab Group that has been painted in recent weeks. In our long history, we have had a constructive working relationship with the State. Our attitude has always been proactive, businesslike and professional. The issue of my salary has been a focus, as has our participation in the charity lotteries compensation fund. My total remuneration has been published and the Rehab Group has committed to publishing the total remuneration of the senior management team.

For the purpose of clarity, allow me to explain the charity lottery matter. There is an unfair cap on the prizes that charity lotteries can offer. This does not apply to the national lottery. We must try to compete with a national lottery that has no limits on its prizes while charity lotteries must limit their entire prize funds to €20,000 per week. The Government, which owns the national lottery, makes the rules for the charity lotteries. All of this has a devastating effect on the ability of charity lotteries to compete against the national lottery, which has free rein.

For decades, the charity lotteries have been seeking fair play through the removal of the prize fund cap placed on them. In recognition of this inequality, the Government, in agreement with the charity lotteries, set up the charitable lotteries compensation fund in 1997. This agreement allowed the cap on charity lotteries to remain, thereby protecting the national lottery and allowing it to grow, while compensating the charity lotteries. The fund was reviewed periodically and found to be working well and achieving its objectives. In 2004, a major review of the fund by the Department of Finance recommended its continuation and acknowledged that the payments were compensation payments. I did not see this review included in the papers submitted to the committee by the Department of Justice and Equality, so I have brought along a copy for members.

In 2012, the Minister for Justice and Equality announced the termination of the charity lotteries compensation fund without any discussion, warning or meeting. There is no sense in any argument that the fund should be abolished without the removal of the cap on the prize fund for charity lotteries. The conditions that pertained when the fund was established still remain. The cap is unfair and does not allow fair competition.

We now find ourselves under attack through misleading information about our involvement with this scheme and also for trying to get the unfair cap removed. If the purpose of these attacks was to put us off, it has not worked, and our resolve on this matter has become stronger. The sad thing about this is that our door has been open at all times to any reasonable discussion with a view to resolving this, but we could not get engagement. We have been forced to take court action to try to vindicate our rights. We did not want to take the Minister for Justice and Equality to court but we were left with no choice, and charity lotteries will be eliminated if nothing is done.

Many of the recent comments about the Rehab Group relate to the charitable lottery compensation fund. A report furnished to the committee found its way to the front page of a daily newspaper, with the headline and the article giving an impression that substantial funds were used for lobbying and public relations, and a reference was made to hospitality associated with lobbying. The impression given conjured up images of entertaining politicians, but this is entirely false. Funds were not were used for lobbying but for our advocacy work with clients, to help our clients advocate for themselves and to make submissions on major areas of policy. The hospitality refers to a total amount of €119 over one year for teas, coffees and refreshments for clients and staff who travelled to meetings and training sessions, not for lavish lunches with politicians.

There is one other matter I wish to raise. We are very concerned that comprehensive details of our service level agreements and lottery business appeared on the Committee of Public Accounts website, as these details could bestow a commercial advantage to our competitors. We gave this information to Government agencies confidentially. We are regularly in competitive tender with both the private and not-for-profit sectors for contracts, and this undoubtedly puts as at a disadvantage in future tendering, so we need to bring this to the committee's attention. Overall, we are glad of the opportunity to provide relevant information on our service delivery and to address the issues that have been causing concern.

The Rehab Group has been working in communities all over Ireland for decades, and it has often been described as an organisation with social values commercially underpinned. Rehab has a double bottom line, a mission and a margin, and if one does not maintain financial sustainability then one will not be able to maintain a mission. There are many individuals and families depending on the services of the Rehab Group and we need to ensure that we continue to be there for them and that, whenever possible, we help them with their needs. Our clients are very much part of the fabric of Rehab and are involved in how the services are run. There are many families right across Ireland depending on their income from the Rehab Group. One of the key resources of the Rehab Group is our 3,500 professional and talented staff. Their skills and abilities make us who we are today, and their commitment and willingness to go the extra mile is evident in the outcomes that our clients achieve every day.

The Rehab Group is both fortunate to have and proud of the many thousands of volunteers and family members who support its activities in very many different ways and at different levels of the organisation. They ensure that we are relevant and connected to local communities. We also operate in partnership with a wide range of stakeholders, including our clients and their families, commercial customers, public bodies, State agencies and community organisations, all of which play a crucial role in enabling Rehab to provide a high quality and value for money service which impacts positively on the lives of our clients.

I was about to say that the best people to tell the committee about Rehab are the people using our services, and we brought a video of National Learning Network and RehabCare clients, but it seems it is not possible to show it. It is not possible to provide the sound on its own either. Is it possible for my colleagues, Ms Laura Keane and Marie Kelly, to say a couple of words instead?