John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the witnesses. Last night we received two letters, one from a solicitor representing Ms Angela Kerins and one from a solicitor representing Mr. Frank Flannery. I can understand why Ms Kerins is not attending today as it is due to ill health, and we wish her a speedy recovery, but the committee takes issue with the other comments in her letter. We have issued a reply to her through our legal advisers. Following the hearing today and depending on the information we receive, we might decide to invite Ms Kerins again to a further hearing of this committee.

I and the members of the committee considered Mr. Flannery's letter last night and we have issued a response to it. The issues raised by him in the letter are simply not accurate, in my opinion. These are issues that must be dealt with by the committee and we believe Mr. Flannery and Ms Kerins have a contribution to make to our investigation. There is no doubt about that. The letter refers to the fact that Mr. Flannery did not receive a letter directly regarding our last hearing, but it was made perfectly clear to the Rehab Group, in writing and through the clerk to the committee, that we expected Mr. Flannery to attend our last hearing. It did not help our consideration of these matters that Mr. Flannery was apparently in the House on the day. As I have said publicly, he may not have been invited but I am still not sure whether he was actually invited, as requested through this committee and through Ms Kerins. We do not know the answer to that.

The other issues raised in the letter from Mr. Flannery relate to correspondence that this committee received. We take our role very seriously and that correspondence, under legislation, had to be referred to the Garda. There was no option for the committee but to refer it to the Garda. That is where the matter stands. It was the only option we had and it was done out of respect for the legislation and the law. It was no reflection on Mr. Flannery and nobody here has a personal agenda against him. The committee wishes to put it on record that we reject all of what has been said in the letter from Mr. Flannery.

Our intention is to pursue the spending of public money. This is taxpayers' money and is not our money or the witnesses' money. Out of respect to the committee and the Oireachtas, and in light of the fact that Rehab has received substantial funding from public funds over the years, we expected full co-operation from Ms Kerins and Mr. Flannery. I find it unacceptable and beyond common sense that they take this approach.
The clerk to the committee has brought an e-mail from Mr. Dore to my attention. I will make a copy available once I have read it into the record. It is addressed to the clerk and states:

Shortly before 5pm this evening you received a letter from my client.
This letter was sent to you by email and it was hand delivered. This letter was marked "strictly confidential".
Despite this, within the hour, extracts / quotations from this letter appeared on the RTE website.
This could only have happened because this strictly confidential letter addressed to you was leaked to RTE. This is shocking and requires an immediate explanation.
Please confirm whether or not you leaked this strictly confidential letter to RTE and if so on what possible basis you did this.
If you did not leak it please identify who did.
Please let me hear from you as a matter of urgency.
Yours faithfully
Robert Dore

We will put that in the nonsense file and ask that it be circulated to members.
The game of cat and mouse and trying to extract information should be over in the interests of the charity sector. It is not all about Rehab but about the charity sector. I ask for the full co-operation of the witnesses and I welcome their recent statements. I hope we can resolve the issues and I welcome the fact that the witnesses have attended. We requested specific people to attend on the last occasion and it did not happen. Had we received co-operation, we might not be here today. I look forward to a reasonable exchange and the witnesses should ask for a break if they need one for any reason.
I ask members, witnesses and those in the Gallery to turn off their telephones. They interfere with the sound quality in the transmission of the meeting. Witnesses are protected by absolute privilege in respect of the evidence they are to give this committee. If they are directed by the committee to cease giving evidence in relation to a particular matter and they continue to so do, they are entitled thereafter only to a qualified privilege in respect of their evidence. They are directed that only evidence connected with the subject matter of these proceedings is to be given and they are asked to respect the parliamentary practice to the effect that, where possible, they should not criticise or make charges against a Member of either House, a person outside the House or an official by name or in such a way as to make him or her identifiable. Members are reminded of the provision within Standing Order 163 that the committee should also refrain from inquiring into the merits of a policy or policies of the Government or a Minister of the Government or the merits of the objectives of such policies.
I welcome Mr. Kerr and the Rehab Group witnesses and I ask him to introduce his colleagues.