On February 17th, 2014, news outlets widely reported that Rehab Group CEO, Angela Kerins, earned a €240,000 salary, which headlines noted was €54,650 more than the taoiseach.
The private not-for-profit group, which received €82 million in annual State funding, primarily for services, released the figure amid public controversy about the charity sector and following calls from then-taoiseach Enda Kenny and various ministers.
Ms Kerins, a private sector employee who began her career as a nurse, was asked to appear before the Dáil’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) regarding State payments to Rehab.
What occurred during the February 27th public hearing and a subsequent PAC hearing she could not attend has been the subject of a decade of litigation, with Ms Kerins enduring multiple outings in various courts in her bid for compensation for alleged damage to her health, reputation and career.
Joy is a word Conor McGregor returns to again and again. Nikita Hand paints a much darker picture
Blindboy: ‘I left my first day of school feeling great shame. The pain of that still rises up in me’
Liverpool must think Mamardashvili is something very special if they believe he’s better than Kelleher
Election 2024 poll: Support for Independents jumps but Fine Gael remains most popular party
In 2019, the Supreme Court declared that the PAC acted unlawfully by venturing significantly outside its remit.
The next leg of her claim, concerning damages, was returned to the High Court.
In what would ordinarily be a benign request for documents in support of one’s claim, Ms Kerins again encountered a barrier: Article 15.13 of the Constitution, which confers an absolute privilege on parliamentary utterances.
Not only did Mr Justice Alexander Owens feel he could not entertain her application for Dáil documents, but he believed her damages claim was “not maintainable”.
Rejecting her appeal of this ruling, the Supreme Court said it could not untangle her claim from the words uttered.
The Chief Justice noted that the Oireachtas is obliged to protect and defend the personal rights of the individual and to vindicate these if injustice is done.
- Sign up for push alerts and have the best news, analysis and comment delivered directly to your phone
- Join The Irish Times on WhatsApp and stay up to date
- Listen to our Inside Politics podcast for the best political chat and analysis
