Every effort will be made to recoup Kiely's €740k secret payoff

Health Minister James Reilly has pledged the Government will use all available options to seek the return of former CRC chief Paul Kiely’s €740,000 secret payoff, including the gardaí, corporate enforcement and the civil courts.

His comments came as Public Accounts Committee member and Labour TD Robert Dowds, who once worked at the Central Remedial Clinic, made an emotional television appeal for Mr Kiely to hand the money back.

“I would say to Paul Kiely across the airwaves, give back the money now and help us to get out of the real hole that the CRC and charitable sector find themselves in,” he said on RTÉ.