Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Tánaiste knows, and we all know, that the Rehab organisation has been asked by the Committee of Public Accounts to appear before it and has been before the committee to answer important questions relating to salaries, pensions and a range of other issues pertaining to the organisation. For good reason we all agree that this is in the public interest, just as it is for other organisations in the charitable area which have significant and substantial service contracts with the State. The figure in question is approximately €80 million worth of funding from the taxpayer to Rehab. It is clearly in the public interest that those who are asked to go before the Committee of Public Accounts should do so. However, there has been an unacceptable degree of prevarication and delay by the Rehab organisation in its dealings with the Committee of Public Accounts. In particular, people were surprised and rather taken aback by the refusal of a former chief executive officer, Frank Flannery, to appear before the committee.

He was a strategic adviser to the Taoiseach and his right-hand man on many fronts. He knows the importance of the Oireachtas and of committees like the Committee of Public Accounts. However, he has not gone forward to answer questions that remain unanswered. What was really unacceptable was that on the very day the Committee of Public Accounts was meeting Rehab, Mr. Flannery was in Leinster House on other business, metaphorically giving the two fingers to the Committee of Public Accounts which I believe to be unacceptable.

Does the Tánaiste agree that is unacceptable?

According to reports in The Irish Times, Rehab was paying its directors specifically to lobby Fine Gael and Labour Party Ministers. It is reported that Mr. Flannery was also paid to do so. Does the Tánaiste accept the principle that it is wholly wrong for charitable organisations, which have such substantial service contracts with the State, to pay their directors to lobby Ministers and arrange meetings with officials in Departments? Does he agree that is fundamentally an unethical principle to adopt?

The Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Hogan, appointed Mr. Flannery as chairman of the Forum on Philanthropy. That organisation has been lobbying, for example, for changes to tax rules on residency governing tax exiles. Does the Tánaiste consider it appropriate that Mr. Flannery should continue in that position while still refusing to go before the Committee of Public Accounts, a cherished institution of the Oireachtas?

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