Ten senior managers in one Rehab division share €900,000 in salaries

Senior members of management in one part of the Rehab organisation in receipt of HSE funding shared over €900,000 in salary last year, according to figures given to the Dáil Public Accounts Committee last night.

The figures for the RehabCare division show there were 10 senior management personnel who between them received salary payments of €908,498 in 2013.

The report, given by the HSE to the committee, also shows that employer pension contributions for these senior managers came to just over €81,700. The report says the cash equivalent of other benefits provided was just in excess of €48,800. It also maintains there were no allowances paid out.

Company car
It says a company car was provided where national travel was required, and mileage is paid at rates approved by the Revenue Commissioners.

The figures form part of the service level agreement signed between the HSE and RehabCare last year and sent last night to the Public Accounts Committee.

HSE national director for social care Pat Healy told the committee in a letter the HSE had service arrangements in place with two wholly-owned subsidiaries of the Rehab Group. He said there were 27 arrangements in place with Rehabcare at a cost of €40 million in 2013 and 19 with the National Learning Network at a cost of €10.2 million in 2013.

The figures contained in the service level agreement and given to the committee do not set out remuneration of senior management in the overall Rehab group.

Minister for Health James Reilly last week warned that future State funding for Rehab could be at stake if the organisation does not disclose the salary paid to its chief executive.

Kerins salary
Dr Reilly has repeatedly called for the salary of Rehab chief executive Angela Kerins to be revealed in advance of the organisation's board meeting, which is due to discuss the matter in a month.

He also said a failure to reveal these details meant “our relationship with them as it currently stands would come into question”.

Last year, the HSE sought and received salary details of senior management at two subsidiaries of Rehab, namely Rehab Care and the National Learning Network. However, it does not have a contractual relationship with the overall holding company of which Ms Kerin’s is chief executive, Rehab Group. According to the company, the HSE had never previously sought details of Ms Kerin’s salary.

The controversy intensified last week when Minister for Justice Alan Shatter released details of an audit of Rehab Lotteries by his department in 2012 and questioned the "costly" legal action the group had taken against the State. The audit showed that gross lottery sales in 2010 of almost €7.2 million yielded a net profit of €550,000, or 8 per cent.