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HAMILTON GOULDING, THE former Chair of the CRC, has admitted that the organisation “overstepped the mark” when it appointed Brian Conlan as its CEO last July.
The Central Remedial Clinic appointed Conlan on a salary of €125,000, over €40,000 above HSE guidelines.
He was paid at that level until October, when he asked the CRC board to lower his pay to the approved €83,252. He stepped down in December at the request of the HSE, along with all other board members.
Fine Gael TD Simon Harris said that the Clinic’s board showed “blatant disregard” for the HSE when it hired Conlan, noting they must have thought: “When we appoint the next guy, we’ll obey the rules.”
Goulding told the Public Accounts Committee that the board felt it could afford to pay Conlan the higher salary as his appointment came at the time of the retirement of former CEO Paul Kiely and another executive, which led to €340,000 being freed up.
“We knew we’d overstepped the mark a bit …we did try to patch things up,” Goulding said, adding: “We clearly transgressed but we got a good result” – referencing Conlan’s suitability for the role.
“It’s not a perfect story,” Goulding admitted.
At one point in proceedings, Sinn Féin’s Mary Lou McDonald said that the Clinic had essentially told the HSE to “get lost” whenever it asked questions.
Harris said that the financial controversy surrounding the CRC was brought about due to an attitude of “Write the cheque and hand it off to the service provider”, without following up where the money was going.
When questioned about Kiely’s retirement payoff of almost €742,000, Goulding said the board members knew they were “at the boundary of things getting more expensive … we were if they didn’t agree to his terms”.
He said it was unfair to say that Kiely was “pushing us around all the time” but noted that he was “a very determined individual and well aware of his rights”.
Earlier today, Hamilton’s successor Kieran Timmins told the committee that the CRC board was considering asking for Kiely to repay some of the money.
Committee Chair John McGuinness said that a transcript of the meeting would be sent to Conlan, who was not present. His solicitors had questioned him being called as a witness and whether or not it was under PAC’s remit to investigate how taxpayers’ money and public donations were used to top-up executive salaries at the charity.
Laverne McGuinness, Deputy Director General of the HSE, informed the committee that, as of the 1 July deadline, 60 executives in voluntary hospitals and health agencies had claimed to have contractual entitlements to retain top-up payments.
McGuinness said that a further 43 payments have ceased, while there are 18 cases for which the necessary documentation has not been submitted. She added that the HSE was working with a number of other agencies to achieve compliance.
Harris said he hoped that other Section 38 bodies would not be let “off the hook” by the committee as it has been so focused on two particular organisations - the CRC and the Rehab Group.
He said that organisations like the CRC exist because of the “holistic failure of the State” to provide for people with disabilities.
Independent TD Shane Ross said that he while he was not slow to criticse Goulding, he commended him for appearing before the committee.
I think it’s brave, it was difficult for you … You did have an option to take a different route, which some of your colleagues did.
The Clinic’s reputation has been badly damaged by the controversy – it’s fundraising dropped from €404,000 in 2012 to €190,934 last year.
Goulding praised the CRC’s “excellent” staff and said he hoped that the organisation would “bounce back quickly”.
Originally published 4.35pm
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They’ll probably need an update every 1000 miles
That’s OK, the battery will need 1,000 recharges to do those 1,000 miles.
Instead of petrol it runs on apple juice!!
I’ll buy one if it comes with a spare battery.
Why is bono on the dash?
Battery will be not replaceable. It will only work on primary roads will not allow to work on lanes. Will only charge at designated apple stores with a lightening connecter. It will run on Apple maps so be prepared never to get where you want. It will also have one radio station approved by Apple
Samsung will release one with better replaceable battery. Charge anywhere. Listen to everything and will not bend when you tip a kerb
But the apple version will be sleek, shiny, futuristic and give you spontaneous orgasm when you grasp the leather steering wheel and it starts up…
Meanwhile someone will be rattling along in a plastic Samsung banging on the window and trying to scream… ‘I’m just as good! I’m just as good’ but completely drowned out…
Unless you go the N4 Samsung version with faster speeds better cornering and better breaks :)
Breaks will not come as standard in apple car
Ahhh the N4… Would that be the ugly grey plastic one… Or the slightly less ugly blue-grey plastic one… Or the kind of grey black not entirely ugly but low spec that’s cheap one?
It’s the one that comes with metallic leather and s pen but should not write and drive
Drew would that be the same ‘ugly plastic’ that’s used in Ferrari F1 cars?
Can I please vote Drew’s comment of the year? :)
pffft… it will probably only work on their roads and an army of tech-ignorant douches will be lining up to buy them anyway.
Someone’s man they couldn’t afford an iPhone
Mad*
It’ll be priced like a Merc and will run like a Renault.
Will I be able to Jailbreak it?
You can drive in into the gates of Mountjoy and find out ?
Wonder if it’ll have WINDOWS
iScreen
Great news, love a bit of competition.
Apples popularity should open up the market, hopefully we’ll be ordering knock offs from China soon.
Might open up your humour as well cos it’s clearly Nokia humour at the moment.
Nokia started life in the 1800s as bog roll specialists in Finland.
Product diversification can also be good for the Apple brand.
The only way an electric car will sell is if Apple made them
Cars are not at apples core!
carbon credits baby, its the new money spinner, tesla made 100 million last year selling carbon credits of the back of making electric cars. one could ask jf they reduced their carbon footprint?
News outlets now confirming apple are making cars? How can they confirm something that’s just a rumour?
Hope I don’t need to use my sh!t iPhone charger
Will it have airplane mode? :)
It will never crash .
cool
I’d be more concerned about what data it’s keeping about my driving, where I go, when I go, how I go, and what use it is making of that data. The internet of things is going to be a privacy and civil liberties minefield, the beginning of which we’re only starting to get a glimpse of now.
Peace, love and empathy.
Realistically would anyone buy a car from a manufacturer that has never made or produced a car before with zero track record of such an endeavour?
I wouldn’t!
You’d turn down a Tesla?
Is that a good reason for people to never try and build a car? Because they never made one before? What logic is that?
People bought a phone from a computer company that had never made phones before and it was the biggest product success in history…
Biggest product success in history? Is that a fact?
Thanks but I’ll let someone else be the lemming, then might consider it on 2nd or 3rd generation.
@PaulRoche, taking a couple of engineers from Tesla does not make Apple Tesla.
@JonBurkin, no not at all, just not a 1st generation one.
@AllanFarrell, What’s your point? Is that a question?
A company worth approx 170+ billion, thats a success!!
Tesla is worth approx $25 billion from selling electric cars. Its a good future business for apple,
Tesla is worth approx $25 billion from selling carbon credits, not cars.
Its a car company and its still worth $25 billion regardless to its carbon credits business
Sorry, 700billion
David,
You might want to sit down for this.
Tesla had zero history in car manufacturing until they started making them.
That was my point.
Just don’t try to use it to go to the airport!
Will my I phone charger be able to cope with charging it .
There are just so many reasons why Apple should never make a car it’s not even funny… It will be the comedy gift that just keeps giving when stupid people with way more money than sense buy one of these just because it has an Apple badge and a pretty white box…. I despair.
It won’t allow for windows either
Would you have bought a car from a company that made sewing machines, today they are called toyota.
Mazda used to make light bulbs
An apple car, it will probably only let you go the way it wants you to go.
Not true…they Will get into making electronic dashboards/navigation/driver assist…who would buy a bloody Apple car?
have your say