Friday 17 January 2014 14.15 HSE Chief Executive Tony O'Brien has insisted that those responsible for the situation at the Central Remedial Clinic will be held accountable.
Mr O'Brien told RTÉ's Today with Sean O'Rourke that the Health Service Executive would protect the critical services of the CRC.
Yesterday it emerged that former CRC chief executive Paul Kiely got a retirement package of over €740,000.
Mr O'Brien said today: "Those who are responsible for what has happened will be held accountable for that. We will make sure that these services continue.
"We also have physical control over the still-large sum of money that's been donated to the clinic over the years and we will make sure that that is used in the future exclusively for the benefit of the clients of that centre."
He said the interim administrator appointed by the HSE to run the clinic would be continuing a very detailed investigation over the next few months into everything that had gone on there, particularly from a financial perspective.
Mr O'Brien said the HSE would be assembling a comprehensive file, and would go wherever that file took it.
He said that might lead in the direction of inviting the gardaí in, it might lead to the Director of Corporate Enforcement or to the civil courts.
Mr O'Brien said the process of beginning to appoint a new chief executive at the CRC, to take over from the interim administrator, had already begun.
He said the HSE was not intending to directly run the CRC, but wanted to re-establish it as a well-regulated voluntary body.
Asked about the pension arrangements for Mr Kiely, Mr O'Brien said: "There's nothing normal at all about these arrangements, they are completely abnormal.
"One of the things we have to work out is who misled who.
"We are very concerned about whether or not the board had the right to make such decisions, and the right to use funds in this way.
"It's premature to reach a definitive conclusion but we are certainly looking at it from that angle.
"We have had legal advice so far which indicates that we need to examine that even further and we will continue to do so."
The amount paid to Mr Kiely emerged as another former CRC chief executive, Brian Conlan, appeared at the Public Accounts Committee yesterday.
Mr Kiely was paid a €200,000 tax-free lump sum and a €273,336 taxable lump sum.
A further €268,689 was paid to ensure Mr Kiely's pension/lump sum benefits would not be less than if he had continued to remain on as chief executive until November 2016.
PAC Chairman John McGuiness told RTÉ's Morning Ireland that the payment given to Mr Kiely should be repaid.
He said: "This is money that came from voluntary collections and it is shameful and outrageous that the board should have approved that kind of payment and that they would have gone out of their way to put in place an agreement that stated it was confidential and should not be spoken about.
"They deliberately constructed to mislead and to hide the fact that this was publicly collected money from voluntary sources that they were paying to Mr Kiely."
Mr McGuinness also reiterated his appeal to the public to remember the staff and clients of CRC.
He also said there were questions about how money was paid from one CRC group into another for Mr Kiely's salary and pension.
Mr Kiely and the former CRC board appeared before the PAC last month, but Mr McGuinness said the notices to attend the committee again would be going out to Mr Kiely and the board "without delay".
The HSE has confirmed that it is taking legal advice in relation to the payments made to Mr Kiely as part of his retirement package.
Elsewhere, Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore has said he is "shocked" at revelations at the PAC and said the Government was determined to "wipe out and weed out" practices of the past.
Reilly says talk of State controlling CRC 'premature'
Minister for Health James Reilly has said he would not rule out the possibility of the CRC being brought under State control.
However, Mr Reilly told RTÉ's News at One programme that such a move might be a bit premature.
He said he would not like the message to go out that the voluntary body model has failed just because one institution has been found to be in serious breach in a number of areas.
Asked about the damage caused by the controversy to the CRC and other charitable organisations, Minister Reilly said the Government was committed to putting in place a regulator to govern charities and said they would be appointed later this year.
Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin had earlier called for the State to take over the running and operation of the CRC.
Speaking in Cork this afternoon, he said the revelations yesterday regarding the payment made to Mr Kiely were disgusting.
He said there is now a moral imperative on Mr Kiely to return the money to the clinic.
Mr Martin said the public is dismayed that funds raised by volunteers for frontline services contributed to the payment to Mr Kiely.
He said that in light of this the State now has no choice but to take over the CRC.
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