Results 6,681-6,700 of 21,498 for speaker:Mary Lou McDonald

Public Accounts Committee: Payments to Section 39 Companies: Discussion (27 Feb 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: If Ms Kerins does not mind because time is limited, I want, with all due respect, to stay with this line of questioning. We have the position where the staff are benchmarked within their sector. I am not speculating, as I have it in the recommendation, that Ms Kerins argued vigorously that public service rates of pay and pay movements had to be observed for the staff. Then we find she...

Public Accounts Committee: Payments to Section 39 Companies: Discussion (27 Feb 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: The first thing that jumped out at me was that it represented an increase of €6,000 from the previous year. Some of her colleagues referred to cutbacks. She also made reference to them, pay moderation and so on. How does she account for an increase of €6,000 for herself?

Public Accounts Committee: Payments to Section 39 Companies: Discussion (27 Feb 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: I realise that.

Public Accounts Committee: Payments to Section 39 Companies: Discussion (27 Feb 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: What about the €6,000 increase?

Public Accounts Committee: Payments to Section 39 Companies: Discussion (27 Feb 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: What I would like Ms Kerins to do is to explain briefly and clearly in laywoman's language how she accounts for an increase of €6,000 at a time of cutbacks and pay moderation in her organisation?

Public Accounts Committee: Payments to Section 39 Companies: Discussion (27 Feb 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: Some €240,000.

Public Accounts Committee: Payments to Section 39 Companies: Discussion (27 Feb 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: Therefore, we have no answer on the €6,000 increase. Ms Kerins referenced the remuneration committee. I remind her that this committee specifically asked for those people to come here because she had passed the buck, not unreasonably, and said it was their kick. In addition to the €240,000, I understand she has the use of a company car and a fairly attractive pension...

Public Accounts Committee: Payments to Section 39 Companies: Discussion (27 Feb 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: I will come to that. Does Ms Kerins have any notion - just to hark back to her predecessor, Mr. Frank Flannery, to get a sense of how this works out for a person in her position - of what the value of her pension pot might be? Has she benchmarked herself against Mr. Flannery? Can any of her team tell us what Mr. Flannery's pension pot might be?

Public Accounts Committee: Payments to Section 39 Companies: Discussion (27 Feb 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: Does Ms Kerins or any of her team have any notion of what Mr. Flannery's pension pot is? Are they just disinterested or is it unknown to the organisation?

Public Accounts Committee: Payments to Section 39 Companies: Discussion (27 Feb 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: Is there somebody within the Rehab Group who knows it? There is bound to be, surely to goodness.

Public Accounts Committee: Payments to Section 39 Companies: Discussion (27 Feb 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: I am exploring the issue of reward, pay and pensions within the Rehab Group. Ms Kerins is the serving CEO. As she has said, unreasonably, that she cannot categorically state what her own pension pot will be, I am not asking unreasonably because she has used the word "benchmarking" time and again if perhaps she benchmarked herself against her predecessor, Mr. Frank Flannery, whom, let me...

Public Accounts Committee: Payments to Section 39 Companies: Discussion (27 Feb 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: I see from the accounts that there were two kinds of pension scheme within Rehab. There was the defined benefit scheme, which has been wound up, and the defined contribution scheme. Who was in the defined benefit scheme?

Public Accounts Committee: Payments to Section 39 Companies: Discussion (27 Feb 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: I thank Ms Kerins. She has cited a number of times the benchmarking system used in the establishment of her own salary and identified the fact that, according to this measurement, she is below the median. She has cited the figure of 20% below the median. I can only take it then, according to Ms Kerins, that rather than being paid €240,000, she should be paid, in order to be on...

Public Accounts Committee: Payments to Section 39 Companies: Discussion (27 Feb 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: So €288,000, according to Ms Kerins' reckoning, is the market rate for her job.

Public Accounts Committee: Payments to Section 39 Companies: Discussion (27 Feb 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: That really should be €264,000 then.

Public Accounts Committee: Payments to Section 39 Companies: Discussion (27 Feb 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: So Ms Kerins is underpaid by €24,000.

Public Accounts Committee: Payments to Section 39 Companies: Discussion (27 Feb 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: Ms Kerins made a point of raising it so I want to explore it with her. She is down 10% on her base salary. Where is the other 10% shortfall?

Public Accounts Committee: Payments to Section 39 Companies: Discussion (27 Feb 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: Is Ms Kerins prepared to publish, even in a redacted form, the report that has given her this measurement and turned up this result? Who did that piece of research for Rehab?

Public Accounts Committee: Payments to Section 39 Companies: Discussion (27 Feb 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: So Ms Kerins would be prepared to share that with the committee.

Public Accounts Committee: Payments to Section 39 Companies: Discussion (27 Feb 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: That would be helpful because many people would want to have sight of it, not least people within Ms Kerins' own sector, that is, the charitable sector. Ms Kerins will be aware that when her salary became a matter of public knowledge, colleagues within her sector were very critical of, if not shocked by, the level of her pay. They cited research which might interest Ms Kerins, in terms of...