Rehab chief executive Angela Kerins did not disclose her husband's large shareholding in a company when she told the Public Accounts Committee that its dealings with Rehab prompted him to resign his directorship of the company.
Engagements between Rehab and Complete Eco Solutions Ltd are the subject of outstanding questions from the PAC to Rehab, which is considering its response. The disabilities charity Rehab is likely to be raised at the PAC again today, according to committee members.
This follows disquiet over Rehab’s initial refusal to disclose Ms Kerin’s remuneration amid heightened political scrutiny of the charities sector in general.
At the committee one week ago, Ms Kerins attributed Seán Kerins’s resignation as director to the firm’s “pilot” work with Rehab on a coffin venture.
However, she never mentioned his ownership of 50 of the 150 shares in the business. “My husband was a director of Eco Solutions Limited, but once this activity started, he stood down.”
FG strategist
Ms Kerins's brother Joseph McCarthy is also director and one-third shareholder of Complete Eco Solutions and Ms Kerins's predecessor and senior Fine Gael strategist Frank Flannery is a director and one-third shareholder.
The PAC has asked Rehab for more information on pensions and bonus payments of senior executives – including Mr Flannery’s pension.
His failure to attend the hearing was criticised by committee members. He was in Leinster House at the time.
Asked at the ardfheis if he’d encourage Mr Flannery to go before the committee, Taoiseach Enda Kenny said people should be forthcoming about income in the charity sector when public money is involved.
Rehab’s spokesman declined to discuss Ms Kerins’s remarks to the committee about her husband’s involvement in Complete Eco Solutions.
“They’ll be making one comprehensive set of responses to the PAC and that will be it,” he said. “Rehab is currently working on this and intends that the outstanding matters will be addressed well within the timeframe outlined.”
Questioned at the PAC about Rehab’s dealings with Complete Eco Solutions, Ms Kerins said she absented herself from decision-making and said Rehab’s board and audit committee had oversight of the initiative.
The links went no further than the pilot project, she stressed.
“I wish to make clear that I am not directly involved in this.” Asked if the idea of family members and people close to her having a commercial relationship with Rehab made her uncomfortable, Ms Kerins indicated it did. “In relation to this, I would always be uncomfortable,” she replied.
Companies Office records show that Seán Kerins resigned as a director of Complete Eco Solutions on August 31st, 2010, having become a director on the same day as Mr Flannery on December 7th, 2009.
