Lawyer: Shane Ross had adverse state of mind to Angela Kerins

TD Shane Ross wrote an article after former Rehab CEO Angela Kerins and other Rehab officials appeared at the Dáil Public Accounts Committee (PAC) asserting that, “for sheer neck, no-one has come within a whisper of Angela Kerins and her charity gang”, the High Court has heard.

John Rogers, counsel for Ms Kerins, said Mr Ross was then a member of the PAC and the tone of his March 2014 article in the Sunday Independent “plainly indicates” a state of mind adverse to Ms Kerins, Rehab, and others mentioned in it, including another ex-Rehab CEO, Frank Flannery.

Mr Rogers was making final arguments at the conclusion of a hearing before a three-judge High Court concerning whether the PAC had jurisdiction to conduct two hearings on February 27 and April 2014 concerning public payments to Rehab as it had.

Mr Justice Peter Kelly, with Mr Justice Seamus Noonan and Ms Justice Isobel Kennedy, said they had “a great deal to consider”, and would give judgment at a later date.

Ms Kerins claims the two hearings were an unlawful “witchhunt” against her outside the PAC’s jurisdiction and she wants damages on grounds including alleged personal injury, loss of reputation and loss of career.

She claims she was so overwhelmed by what happened at the February 27 hearing she later attempted to take her life and could not attend the April 10 hearing.

The PAC argues that it had jurisdiction to conduct the hearings as it did and is entitled to scrutinise how public funds are spent in a context including €80m public monies paid annually to Rehab companies.

Yesterday, Mr Rogers said the March 2014 article by Mr Ross referred to the Rehab witnesses appearing before the PAC on February 27 and alleged that the committee was given the “two-finger treatment” with “key questions” left unanswered, including concerning Ms Kerins’s “astronomical” €240,000 salary and “chunky bonuses” in the past. This was a member of the PAC discussing its business in public through his newspaper column, counsel said.

Mr Justice Kelly remarked it was “hardly a discussion” and Mr Ross was “expressing trenchant views”.

Mr Rogers said PAC was by this stage “wholly out of control” and its business was being discussed by one of its members in public when there was no recourse.

When Mr Justice Kelly said there was the option of a defamation action, Mr Rogers argued there was no recourse in the context of the process of the committee.

Counsel also said PAC chairman John McGuinness wrote an article in the Irish Sun dealing with what Mr McGuinness regarded as Ms Kerins’s “refusal” to appear again before the PAC.