Former CRC chief to face Dáil hearing
The HSE said he may be asked to give back part of the sum, which was far greater than the €200,000 he told the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) he received when he appeared before them in December.
As well as the €200,00 tax-free sum, his final package included €273,336 which was taxable and €268,689 paid to Mercer’s consultants for his pension fund.
The third payment was intended to make sure the former clinic chief had a pension pot as though he had remained in the senior post up until Nov 2016.
At the same time of this final payment, an amount of €700,000 was paid by Friends and Supporters of the CRC described as a “donation”.
The information came to light when the HSE put in place an interim administrator at the CRC following the resignation of the entire board last month.
According to correspondence provided to the PAC, the administrator, John Cregan, told HSE chief executive Tony O’Brien: “The payments to Mr Kiely could not have been made by the CRC if the €700,000 had not been received from the Friends and Supporters.”
The CRC board agreed to the arrangement in Feb 2013, but also decided that a legally binding confidentiality agreement would be put in place.
Under questioning by the PAC, a board member of the CRC at the time, Brian Conlon, said he was not aware of the payments being agreed to or made. “This is completely new to me, I am surprised as anybody with what happened,” he said.
Mr Conlon replaced Mr Kiely as CEO before resigning in December.
Fine Gael TD, Kieran O’Donnell, said the information that came to light this morning was “pure dynamite” and asked that Mr Kiely come back in before the PAC again.
Mr Conlan was told repeatedly that he lacked credibility, including by committee chairman John McGuinness.
He said he was on honeymoon in the US for three weeks when the controversy emerged late last year and returned in December.
Mr Conlan claimed he did not attend a committee hearing on the scandal when first invited as he was under stress, was forced to move out of his house to avoid the media and would have been an ineffective witness.
Committee member Independent TD Shane Ross said he was “gobsmacked” and said he did not believe the evidence. “There was obviously an intention that this should never see the light of day,” he said.
It also emerged from correspondence released during the meeting that Mr Conlon — who had been a board member at CRC for eight years — was nominated to a two-man sub-committee of the board set up to recruit a replacement for Mr Kiely.
Mr Conlon himself eventually secured the position, but said he stepped down from the recruitment committee once he decided to apply for the job.
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