Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Thursday, 10 April 2014
Public Accounts Committee
Payments to Section 39 Companies: (Resumed) Rehab Group
11:35 am
Mr. Hugh Governey:
On Complete Eco Solutions, as far as I am aware and as a director at the time, while I do not have perfect recall, the record shows that an executive director, who I expect was Mr. Horgan, came to Ms Kerins with the idea of importing coffins from China. As Mr. Poole already has described, the business in Kilkenny was really struggling at the time and we were doing everything we could reasonably do to keep the business going and keep both the able and the disabled people in employment. I do not know from where the idea came but as far as we are concerned, he approached Ms Kerins, possibly because he knew she had a brother in China. The proposition was put forward about ascertaining whether this could work as a venture for Rehab Enterprises, in which case the coffins would be assembled in Kilkenny. As Mr. Hogan has already alluded and as the Chairman is aware of from the documentation, at all stages Ms Kerins declared her family's interest in the business to do with this particular transaction.
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