Results 14,521-14,540 of 21,206 for speaker:Mary Lou McDonald

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: I would like that detail.

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

Mary Lou McDonald: I would like Ms Kerins to state whether there is a current relationship between Mr. Flannery and Rehab and what it is.

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

Mary Lou McDonald: It would be useful if Ms Kerins came back with more detail. The reason Mr. Flannery is significant is the same reason Ms Kerins is significant in an assessment of Rehab. It is because she, as Mr. Flannery did before her, occupies the position of CEO of the Rehab Group. We will come to the issue of pay and pensions in due course. The committee believed Mr. Flannery would have something to...

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

Mary Lou McDonald: The opening statement from Mr. Kerins underscores the fact that she is here on a voluntary basis, which is true. It is important to state she found it necessary for her legal representatives to make contact with the committee yesterday afternoon. Will she explain to the committee why she thought it necessary to do this?

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

Mary Lou McDonald: In fact, that was not it. The communication from Ms Kerins's legal representative was to set down a marker and what they regarded as the parameters of the discussion she deemed appropriate to have at the committee meeting.

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

Mary Lou McDonald: The problem is that Rehab is an agency in receipt of €83 million of public funding in the last year. The problem is that Ms Kerins, publicly and stubbornly, has maintained a position that, because she has commercial interests, the public, including volunteers and those who contribute to the organisation in charitable donations, are not to meddle, interfere or ask questions that Rehab,...

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

Mary Lou McDonald: It was probably quite reasonable in Ms Kerins's mind to write to IrishCentral.com. I am sure she is familiar with IrishCentral.com, an Irish-American news outlet. She sent a lawyer's letter because she did not like an article reproduced on the IrishCentral.comwebsite.

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

Mary Lou McDonald: As the CEO of the Rehab Group that receives substantial State funding, Ms Kerins defends that action from her personal perspective and cites her personal rights. Does she have any concept of her accountability and responsibility in her public position? It is a public position she occupies.

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

Mary Lou McDonald: Let us test that statement. In her opening statement Ms Kerins emphasised that Rehab was not a State-run organisation and that its staff were not public servants. This has been reiterated by the HSE. Interestingly, I have a copy of a recommendation from the Labour Court. In 2010 Ms Kerins sought to impose pay cuts on staff in line with those in the public sector. It makes for interesting...

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

Mary Lou McDonald: In the argument made in that set of circumstances Ms Kerins was quite happy to recognise and align Rehab with public pay policy for the purposes of the argument made in front of the Labour Relations Commission, yet in respect of her salary and the salaries of higher executives in the organisation, a very hardline view was taken that Rehab was not linked with the public service, that they were...

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

Mary Lou McDonald: Go raibh maith agat agus cuirim fáilte róimh go léir. I welcome all of the witnesses. We are in the strange situation whereby the number of witnesses equals the number of members. That will make it a fair match this morning. I shall start with Ms Kerins. When the committee invited her to attend we were quite specific about the witnesses that we asked her to bring along....

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

Mary Lou McDonald: That might well be the case. None the less, the committee considered it important to have people with specialist knowledge in respect of pay and pensions in attendance. It specifically asked for the attendance of Mr. Frank Flannery, who is quite a regular attendee around the Houses of the Oireachtas. Did Ms Kerins pass the invitation on to him? Did she invite him to attend? Is there a...

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

Mary Lou McDonald: Ms Kerins has correctly pointed out that Mr. Flannery, her predecessor, has not been in that position since 2006. Can she tell us what, if any, commercial relationship Mr. Flannery may have had with Rehab in the intervening years? Has he undertaken consultancy work?