The Dáil Public Accounts Committee (PAC) is to appeal against a High Court order directing it to disclose certain documents to former Rehab chief executive Angela Kerins for her legal action against the committee.
Ms Justice Isobel Kennedy ruled last week Ms Kerins is entitled to certain categories of documents used by the PAC in relation to its investigation of the funding of Rehab.
When the matter returned before the court today, the judge was told the committee wanted to appeal her order because there would be a large amount of work involved in obtaining the documents, which the PAC had argued were not necessary for her case.
If the PAC’s appeal is successful, all the work in compiling those documents will have been in vain, it was argued.
Restraining
In her action, Ms Kerins seeks a number of orders including one restraining the committee pursuing further examination of Rehab’s finances insofar as they relate to her former employment.
She is also seeking damages for alleged distress and injury to her health.
She claims the PAC conducted itself unlawfully, showed bias towards her, acted outside its remit, and committed a misfeasance in public office. The PAC denies her claims.
Expedited hearing
Ms Justice Kennedy was told by
John Rogers
SC, for Ms Kerins, she was seeking an expedited hearing of her case as the composition of the PAC is likely to change by next year, if not within a few months, once there is a general election.
The judge said she would allow eight weeks for the defendants to make discovery of the documents sought but was prepared to grant a stay on condition that an appeal against her order was lodged within two weeks.
In her ruling last week, Ms Justice Kennedy said Ms Kerins was entitled to four categories of documents, including those relating to the PAC’s terms of reference when a decision was made to commence examination of payments made to Rehab and which subsequently resulted in Ms Kerins’s attendance before the committee in February 2014.