The public spending watchdog will tomorrow begin a formal process seeking Oireachtas approval to compel former Rehab chief executives Angela Kerins and Frank Flannery to appear before the committee.

The Public Accounts Committee held a private meeting tonight to considers its next steps following decisions taken separately by Ms Kerins and Mr Flannery not to appear at its meeting last week.

Ms Kerins wrote to the committee informing it that she was unwell and Mr Flannery informed the committee he would not attend the hearing.

The committee's meeting in private session was to assess those developments and also to discuss how it would respond to new disclosures that a former director of the disabilities charity, John Hussey, was paid over €2.5 million in consultancy fees by Rehab over an 11-year period.

Course of action
The committee, chaired by Fianna Fáil TD John McGuinness, tonight decided unanimously to follow a course of action that may lead to bodies or individuals being compelled to appear.

The Pac will now write to Mr Flannery, Ms Kerins, the directors of Rehab, the Department of Education, the HSE and Solas (the training body that has partly replaced Fás) seeking access to all available documents that will assist it in its inquiries.

The committee has set a two- week deadline for disclosure of the information. If that information is not forthcoming, the Pac will then formally submit an application seeking a compellability order from the Dáil’s Committee on Procedure and Privileges (CPP). The whole process could be completed within three weeks, resulting in bodies and individuals being compelled to appear at a Pac meeting before the summer recess.

Inquiries legislation
It will be the first time that such an order will be sought under the new Oireachtas inquiries legislation which was enacted last year. The Act required the CPP to set up its own procedures and protocols to determine how such orders would be dealt with and processed. That work has now been completed.

Mr McGuinness said tonight the decision was unanimous and the committee was determined to be decisive in finding out all facts pertinent to the Rehab inquiry. “There is no legal reason why Pac should not be granted the compellability powers to conduct the type of inquiry that we have in mind, to help us get to the bottom of it.”