Results 2,001-2,020 of 45,510 for speaker:Simon Harris
- Public Accounts Committee: Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (11 Dec 2013)
Simon Harris: I welcome that. I wish to clarify the issue of salary top-ups. Before 1 January 2010, all of Mr. Kiely's salary was paid from public funds.
- Public Accounts Committee: Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (11 Dec 2013)
Simon Harris: From 1 January 2010, his salary, minus €106,000, was paid from Central Remedial Clinic, CRC, funds. Is that correct?
- Public Accounts Committee: Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (11 Dec 2013)
Simon Harris: At any stage did Mr. Kiely take or was he asked to take a voluntary pay reduction?
- Public Accounts Committee: Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (11 Dec 2013)
Simon Harris: Was Mr. Kiely asked at any stage by the board or did he consider in his own right taking a voluntary pay reduction? He had his contract, but did he ever gift any amount?
- Public Accounts Committee: Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (11 Dec 2013)
Simon Harris: Mr. Kiely never took a reduction.
- Public Accounts Committee: Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (11 Dec 2013)
Simon Harris: Mr. Kiely was never asked. I understand that there were contracts of employment, but did the board ever seek legal advice after the meeting with the HSE that Mr. Martin and others attended regarding Mr. Kiely and others who were in breach of the salary levels?
- Public Accounts Committee: Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (11 Dec 2013)
Simon Harris: My next question is more for Mr. Nugent and Mr. Martin as members of the board. Does it not seem peculiar that it never asked some highly paid executives to take pay cuts at a time when many other people in the country were being asked that and when the HSE, effectively speaking on behalf of the taxpayer, told the CRC that it was way over the salary cap? I wonder why this issue never arose.
- Public Accounts Committee: Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (11 Dec 2013)
Simon Harris: This is not about Mr. Kiely, his expertise or the wonderful work done by the CRC. I doubt that there is a public servant in the country who does not feel aggrieved, and probably rightly so, at having to take pay cuts because it is his or her belief that he or she brings a level of expertise and skill. However, they were still asked to work for less money. I do not quite accept that.
- Public Accounts Committee: Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (11 Dec 2013)
Simon Harris: Please.
- Public Accounts Committee: Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (11 Dec 2013)
Simon Harris: I am glad that Mr. Nugent raised that point. Did the Haddington Road pay reductions and Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest, FEMPI, Acts apply to the full proportion of the salary, that is, the amount sanctioned by the HSE-----
- Public Accounts Committee: Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (11 Dec 2013)
Simon Harris: -----and the top-ups?
- Public Accounts Committee: Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (11 Dec 2013)
Simon Harris: Under Haddington Road, Mr. Kiely's and others' salaries would have been reduced based on the full amount, including what the CRC was paying from private sources.
- Public Accounts Committee: Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (11 Dec 2013)
Simon Harris: It is a major point. Mr. Nugent might clarify for us. Were the topped up portions of pay, in other words, the additional salaries that the CRC was paying above the €106,000 for Mr. Kiely, subject to the pension levy deductions?
- Public Accounts Committee: Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (11 Dec 2013)
Simon Harris: In other words, was Mr. Kiely's salary, minus €106,000, subject to the pension levy deductions?
- Public Accounts Committee: Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (11 Dec 2013)
Simon Harris: I was concerned to hear on 2 December a current member of the board, Mr. Vincent Brady, state that the board had never sanctioned additional payments for any staff. Regardless of whether someone working in a company earns €200,000 or €20,000, the board of directors or governors are responsible for that remuneration. Was Mr. Brady correct?
- Public Accounts Committee: Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (11 Dec 2013)
Simon Harris: Mr. Brady was incorrect to say that the board never sanctioned additional payments for any staff.
- Public Accounts Committee: Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (11 Dec 2013)
Simon Harris: I read Mr. Brady's comments in The Irish Times, but I did not read a clarification or request for clarification from him. He clearly stated that the board had never sanctioned additional payments. From January 2010, the HSE was only covering €106,000 of Mr. Kiely's salary. Presumably, the board would have had to sanction the payment of the remainder of the salary from its own funds....
- Public Accounts Committee: Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (11 Dec 2013)
Simon Harris: I take that point, but it is a governance issue. Was this discussed and decided upon at a board meeting?
- Public Accounts Committee: Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (11 Dec 2013)
Simon Harris: I have heard Mr. Martin make a point at this meeting and Mr. Des Peelo make it on the national airwaves, namely, that the HSE was well aware of the arrangement - I am paraphrasing - and the CRC's contractual obligations. Nowhere in the file of correspondence between the HSE and the CRC, which went backwards and forwards over a long period, can I see any written confirmation of this from the...
- Public Accounts Committee: Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (11 Dec 2013)
Simon Harris: Did Mr. Martin view it as peculiar that the HSE never confirmed it in writing?