PAC ‘set aside rule book with war on Kerins’

The State is liable in damages to former Rehab CEO Angela Kerins because the Dáil Public Accounts Committee subjected her to a “war” in breach of her constitutional rights, the High Court has been told.

John Rogers, counsel for Ms Kerins, said the State’s liability arises because members of the Dail Public Accounts Committee set aside the “rule book” and subjected Ms Kerins to a “war”, making “devastating”, “hurtful”, “grievously damaging” and “outrageous” statements about her at two public hearings in 2014.

Those “statements of fact, expressions of opinion and assertions of wrongdoing” were immediately released in the public domain and are “wholly irretrievable”, he said.