Campaigner says he’s in ‘hell’ with fatal illness

By Ralph Riegel

Sunday August 28 2011 Sunday Independent.

A MENTAL health campaigner has courageously spoken of his imminent death from Motor Neurone Disease (MND) in a bid to boost supports for sufferers of the condition nationwide.

John McCarthy, 61, founder of the Mad Pride movement, said that while he tries to wear an outward smile despite his condition, the fact that he won’t live to see his grandchildren grow up has broken his heart.

There are 300 people diagnosed with MND in Ireland each year — with Cork having the highest per capita rate of diagnosis with 41.

Mr McCarthy, who contested the General Election in Cork in 2002 in a bid to raise the profile of health issues, admitted that he was now “going through hell”.

He spoke out to highlight the condition and boost support for the Irish MND Association.

IMNDA has two nurses employed nationwide to support patients with the disease and wants to expand its services. “We are going through hell right now — I’m dying. I cannot stop this disease destroying my body but I can prevent it destroying my mind and spirit,” he said.

The father of two said MND was best described by its historic name — ‘creeping paralysis’.

“It creeps over your body like a rapist — this MND is relentless. I am stuck in the bed most of the time. Outings are rare and tiring.

“Putting on socks, underwear, pants — it is exhausting. Sitting up in a chair is also exhausting. I’m not able to walk. Basically, my life is gone to shite,” he said.

Mr McCarthy said the silver lining was the incredible support and love of his family and the kindness of friends and colleagues.

“There is a lot of sadness (but) there is a lot of love in the air in this house,” he added.

The campaigner said that his family could handle the truth no matter how painful it might be about his prognosis.

Mr McCarthy said his “beautiful wife Liz” had been a stalwart support even at the most difficult times.

“The story is etched in her face but she rarely speaks of her pain. If she catches me glancing at her that beautiful smile magically reappears,” he added.

He said that one of the most difficult things he had faced was seeing the impact the disease had on his family and the fact that his wife had been rendered “a heart-breaking, heart-rending carer”.

“I so hate seeing my beautiful wife under this strain.”

But he stressed that his family of four was determined to remain united and strong throughout the trials ahead.

“It is love at its best. They are doing for me what I have done for them. They are looking after me and I am making it as easy as possible for them to look after me,” he said.

Mr McCarthy said that what has caused him most upset is the realisation he wouldn’t see his grandchildren grow up.

“It breaks my heart that I will not know them as men. I get pangs of jealousy, when I see the other two granddads, playing, walking with the boys,” he explained.

But he vowed that, in the time he has left, he would work hard on his projects including the scrapping of mental health laws and ensure that while the disease may overwhelm his body it won’t dent his spirit.

“Pain in the body can be handled so much easier than pain in the spirit,” he said.

Mr McCarthy’s son, David, a candidate in the 2011 General Election campaign, said his father had been an inspiration to all around him.

Life and love

The Human ConditionPosted on 25/08/2011 by John McCarthy
@corkindo

I have been thinking about writing this for a bit.
When friends ask me how I am, “I’m grand” is the stock in trade answer, with a smile. Or “as good as it gets”. A few ask how do I retain the humour? A few suggested I write it down, warts and all. So here it is.
If I don’t complain or crib, then I will not feel so bad. It works; it works very well. Most of the time!

We in this house are going through hell right now.

I’m dying.

We know how hard it is for all of us, but we smile most of the time. We remain calm most of the time. I am stuck in the bed most of the time. Outings are rare and tiring. Taking a leak a nightmare! Putting on socks, underwear, pants, exhausting. Sitting up in a chair – exhausting. Not able to walk. Sponge baths! Losing the use of my hands. Basically, my life is gone to shite.

This motor neurone is relentless. The old name is so much more descriptive – creeping paralysis. That is what it is does, it creeps over your body, like a rapist. I cannot stop this disease destroying my body but I can prevent it destroying my mind and spirit.

You know there is an opportunity in everything, and in every situation. We as a family are closing ranks and showing our strength. Growing!

I would suggest, even, that this family is getting stronger. There is a lot of love in the air in the house, there is a lot of sadness.

When I need to, and I do, I cry scream and vent. Alone, when they are out, they know it.
I tell them, and they say it helps to know.

I have learnt to be very open about my feelings whether they’re good or bad. Some cannot handle that level of truth. My family can. And they do me the great honour of telling me “will you cop on?” when I run away with myself.

So I just cry – not too often mind you – but I do it, and it helps. It does not help as much as a deep breath and a smile when my beautiful wife returns, gently opens the door and asks “You all right?”
I can smile and say “I’m grand, you?”

“Me?” she always lies, “I’m fine, cup of tea?” and we get on with this shite.

Liz, being Liz, walks the pressure off in her beautiful garden and vents in her space.
She rarely speaks of her pain, but the story is in her face at those brief moments when I see her and she can’t see me. If she catches me glancing, that beautiful smile magically reappears.

This paralysis is nearly as disabling for Liz. Her whole life has been shagged up, she is on a new, unexciting, heart-rending heart-breaking career, love is forcing this choice on the woman I love, she is a carer now. I so hate that, I so hate seeing my beautiful wife under this strain.

We all make an effort to smile through the strain, and we all see the strain through the smiles.
My family, the four of us, have sat at the kitchen table, looked into each other’s eyes and hearts, and agreed to stay united through this.

Love at its best. They are doing for me what I have done for them. They are looking after me and I am making it as easy as possible for them to look after me.

My daughter and my son are in their mid-thirties. They’re great, and they have their own families to distract them, thank God. I know it helps them. They give me huge strength, giving too much of their time but I am greedy for it.

I have an extended family now, grandsons! One side with a nana and a granddad, one with a granddad.
It breaks my heart that I will not know them as men. I get pangs of jealousy, when I see the other two granddads, playing, walking with the boys.

I have great friends who visit, and we have talked this out. I think most of them call to drink my stock of gin! But I really hope the gin does not run out, I love the company.

Choice

So I have a choice: I can allow all this to overwhelm me or I can smile. I can only smile if I keep the mind busy. So I work in the bed for eight – ten hours a day. I write, make calls and stir the media and political pot to keep this fight for human rights of the mad community on the boil.

I love it. I love the progress we are making.

I cannot imagine having something like creeping paralysis in the old days when a cripple was a cripple, before computers, mobiles, skype, all of that contact with other human beings from the bed.

How and where did those in the past find the strength to live with this cruel way of dying?

Mad Pride is working hard to get its autumn national radio campaign in place to stop force by scrapping mental health laws.

What is going on in my spirit? I am simply experiencing the beautiful side of madness, I have a sense of peace, because I have found that essential unselfish way of loving myself.

The normality of madness! Being quietly confident!

Having spiritual disquiet; depression is the most crippling method of destroying a human being. Pain in the body can be handled so much easier than pain in the spirit.

I will take the last few years I have with creeping paralysis, but with my spirit growing, rather than 20 years with depression and my spirit dying.

I have been there, that place of self isolation.

That was truly awful.

Editorial: Evening Herald 4th April 2011

THE generous €400,000 pay package of the chief executive of Rehab Group, Angela Kerins, draws attention to the need to look at all large salaries in the current economic climate.

Everyone on a big salary, from judges to public servants and bankers, has to come under scrutiny.
We are all feeling the pinch. We all have to make our own painful contribution to get the country back on its feet so every single penny that comes from the public purse has to give value and be counted.

Angela Kerins is head of the private, not for profit company which has received almost €375million in grants and fees from the State over the past six years.

Her case serves to highlight the need for forensic scrutiny of all such high salaries.
The days of enormous salary packages being allowed to stand without heed are in the past. Now they must be explained and defended and if need be, adjusted.

Rehab was aware of chief executive’s link to import firm ‘from outset’

COLM KEENA, Public Affairs Correspondent

2nd May 2011

FINANCIAL DEALINGS between Rehab and a company linked to its chief executive, Angela Kerins, were notified to the disability organisation’s board “from the outset”, according to a spokesman.
The company, Complete Eco Solutions, is owned by Ms Kerins’s husband, Seán Kerins, her brother Joseph McCarthy, and Frank Flannery, a senior adviser to Taoiseach Enda Kenny and a former chief executive of Rehab.
It has been involved in importing material from China for the making of coffins by Rehab, which conducts a diverse range of commercial activities.
A Rehab spokeswoman said the relationship arose when a manager in Rehab discussed the possible importation of materials from China with Mr McCarthy, who has extensive knowledge of doing business in China.
“The conflict was notified to the board from the outset and Angela was not involved. It was all as per good corporate governance.”
Mr Kerins, Mr Flannery and Mr McCarthy each have a one-third shareholding in the company, which was incorporated in December 2009 and is not yet required to file any accounts with the Companies Office.
Mr Flannery said the main focus of Complete Eco Solutions was the alternative energy sector in countries such as France and Spain, although it had not yet started trading.
It was also involved in supplying some items to Irish supermarkets. “We are also giving some help to Rehab. There is no money in it for us.
“We responded to a request from Rehab and we did our best and we don’t see ourselves having a continuing role in the business.”
Mr Flannery did not want to put a value on the material it had imported to date for Rehab.
He said the company started to help Rehab after it was approached by a former executive of the disability group who was working on a new way of creating employment.
Mr Flannery is a director of two Rehab companies, Rehab Lotteries and Rehab Industries.
Mr McCarthy is understood to have a substantial electronics business in China.
Rehab had a turnover of €202 million in 2009 and produced an operating surplus of €1.9 million.
It receives tens of millions of euro in State support from a range of Government departments and agencies as well as from the National Lottery.
Last week chairman of the Rehab board Brian Kerr disclosed that Ms Kerins salary in 2010 was €234,000 and that she received no bonus payment. He said her salary had been reduced by 10 per cent in 2010.
The group does not disclose directors’ remuneration in its annual accounts. Mr Kerr said he was issuing the statement in response to “wild and unfair speculation” in the media.
This was a reference to reports that her total package in 2009 might have been in excess of €400,000.
Yesterday the Rehab spokeswoman said Ms Kerins’s total package in 2010 was less than €260,000.
This included pension contributions and the use of a car. There was no bonus paid in 2010, he said. “There has been no bonus for a number of years.”
Ms Kerins is chairwoman of the Equality Authority and has served on a number of state boards.

As chief executive of a not-for-profit company, Angela Kerins denies reports of an extravagant pay packet and bonuses. She tells us just what she earns:
Justine McCarthy: May 1st 2011 – The Sunday Times.

Kerins is described an indefatigable worker and comfortable among the powerful elite Kerins is described an indefatigable worker and comfortable among the powerful elite

Reports of the sumptuousness of Angela Kerins’s office turn out to have been exaggerated. Legend tells of €200-a-roll wallpaper and red velvet curtains, but the walls are painted (mint blue) and the curtains are recycled and though red, are not velvet. Still, as offices go, the chief executive of Rehab Group is hardly slumming it in her spacious eyrie in its Sandymount headquarters. The cost of refurbishing the office after she took over as boss five years ago was “modest”, according to her spokesman.

Guessing the cost of Kerins’s trappings is more than an idle exercise. The Department of Health is examining state funding to the disability sector following media speculation that Kerins, whose organisation has received almost €375m in grants and fees from the state since 2005, has a pay package of more than €400,000 a year. The company says it is not obliged to reveal executive salaries.

Rehab, the country’s biggest provider of disability services, is a private, not-for-profit company with a complex structure. Last year, the state handed it almost €82m.

Separate to the department’s review, Siptu has been allowed access to Rehab’s accounts as part of labour court proceedings taken by the trade union against proposed pay cuts of 5%-15% for Rehab workers. Last Christmas, the court recommended that the organisation, which operates in four countries and has an annual turnover of €200m, should co-operate with an inspection of its books.

Kerins drives a 2010-reg, Audi 4×4, adding to the mystery about her pay and perks. Brian Kerr, Rehab’s chairman, has dismissed “seriously inaccurate, wild and unfair speculation in the media”, pointing out that Kerins took a voluntary 10% salary cut last year, and did not receive a bonus. Nor will she this year.

But Kerr’s statement only dealt with the chief executive’s salary and failed to address conjecture that, all in all, Kerins’s package is worth more than €400,000 a year. Asked whether, in addition to her €260,000 salary in 2009, she received a €70,000 bonus that year, Kerins says: “I have never got bonuses that size. That is fiction. We have a remuneration committee and all the senior salaries are independently benchmarked. We’re a large commercial organisation. As well as about 10 charities in the group, [there are] about six multimillion-euro businesses. None of my costs are associated with the charity business. Most state funding — all of it — goes to the delivery of services. Other income we earn has to pay for our core activities as well.”

But let’s consider her 2009 package. As well as the €260,000 salary, she is reported to have received a bonus, a health insurance plan, a pension scheme, a luxury car upgraded every two years, and expenses covering frequent travel abroad to Rehab’s subsidiaries in England, Scotland, Poland (a commercial recycling facility for Dell) and the Netherlands (a similar facility for Microsoft), and travel in her role as Rehab’s permanent representative at the United Nations’ economic and social council.

“I don’t claim for my travel,” she says. “If I have to go to Birmingham, Glasgow or whatever, the flight is booked and whatever it costs is what it costs. I do have a car and my pension is a contributory pension. If you added another €20,000 [in expenses], I’d say that under €260,000 [referring to her total package for this year] would be very safe in relation to that.” But what about the occasion when she arrived at the office by helicopter, landing on the front lawn? She dismisses it as “private” and “nothing to do with Rehab”. And to the suggestion that she has stayed at the Burlington Hotel in Dublin at Rehab’s expense, she says: “I used to live way out in Summerhill [in Co Meath]. The journey was too far and too long. There possibly would have been times that I stayed, but if I did it was because I needed to for whatever reason. To the best of my knowledge, I would have stayed in the Burlington once or twice in the last five or six years.”

Kerins is not embarrassed to say this, clearly not afraid of being at the centre of political controversy. Indeed she was born and bred into Fianna Fail, and once stood for the party’s national executive. “I was asked would I run because a few people wanted someone different in it. So I said yes. That was 19 years ago. I didn’t get it because the man who was in there was much cleverer than I.”

Described as an indefatigable worker and comfortable among the powerful elite, she hosted former American President Bill Clinton at a Rehab fundraising dinner in 2005, when he charged €158,000 for a 40-minute speech. The event grossed €600,000 in ticket sales.

More recently, she co-chaired Ireland First, a group of 17 business and political figures who drew up a list of proposals to fix the economy, entitled Blueprint for Ireland’s Recovery. She was among those who presented the blueprint to the taoiseach in his office last month.

Among its proposals were the disbursement of social welfare payments by chip-and-pin cards, the transfer of medical cards and long-term health care from the Department of Health to the Department of Social Protection, the liberalisation of casino gaming laws, and the establishment of a council of economic advisers including “expert business leaders” to advise ministers on running the country.

Giving to charity, or to bloated salaries?

By Michael Clifford – The Irish Examiner

Saturday, 16th April 2011

Kerins is reported to receive a salary package upwards of €400,000…..How can the public continue to have confidence in Rehab? The service it provides is beyond reproach, but what are people handing over money for?

IN these times of austerity, giving to charity has never been as important. Austerity doesn’t hit all sectors equally. Those who require support of one sort or another invariably bear the biggest brunt of cutbacks.

Therefore, it’s never been as important to have confidence in how donations are being put to use. For instance, who wants to give to charity in order to support a fat-cat salary?

It is in this vein that recent revelations about Angela Kerins have been so disturbing.

Kerins is chief executive of the Rehab organisation, which provides training and work for people with disabilities.

Rehab employs about 3,500 people, of whom about one-in-seven have a disability.

Those with a disability working for Rehab receive a top-up payment to their disability allowance. Over the last two budgets, the allowance has been slashed from €204.30 to €188 per week, a cut of 8%.

Kerins, by contrast, is reported to receive a salary package upwards of €400,000. She is also a member of a number of other state boards for which she receives an assortment of stipends. These figures have not been confirmed because Kerins refuses to divulge the exact level of her remuneration on the basis that not all of Rehab’s income derives from the state. A spokesman said she took a 10% cut last year, but her specific salary is not available.

Last year, Rehab received €54.4 million from the state, representing more than a quarter of its total income, and a far bigger grant than was received by most other charities.

Kerins’ refusal to reveal the extent of her “package” is inexplicable. Most other charities are completely up front on what they pay their top people.

For instance, as of last December, Director of Trócaire Justin Kilcullen receives around €150,000. The chief executive of the Brothers of Charity, which provides respite care, is paid €113,000. The top man in St Michael’s House in Dublin, Paul Ledwidge is on €176,000.

Enable Ireland’s chief Fionnuala O’Donovan received pay increases in 2008 and 2009 to bring her salary from €158,000 to €169,000. While cuts were being made to allowances for people with disabilities, one of the bosses in the sector was receiving a generous pay rise. Her salary was cut in 2010 to €156,000. (Some of these figures may have been revised downwards in the last few months.)

When the salaries came into the public domain in December, Health Minister Mary Harney described the information as “disturbing”. Her disturbance was disturbing in itself. Should a serving minister not have been well aware that these were the levels of salary being paid out to organisations funded by her department?

In most cases, the salaries are linked to the upper reaches of the public sector. This is the realm of the cosseted elite, where cast-iron job security and gold-plated pensions are regarded as an entitlement. This is not life as the middle or lower-paid public servants know it, and it’s a world away from where a majority of people in the private sector work.

In remuneration terms, this is the company being kept by some chiefs of charity organisations. Like Mary Harney, many in the public find this quite disturbing.

Heading up a charity brings with it a certain kudos, as if the individual is personally helping those less fortunate. When members of the public give of their time and money to charity organisations, few of them would consider that they do so to support big salaries at the top.

Despite all that, there are mitigating factors. People of ability are required to run charities efficiently. Salaries should be linked to something, and the public sector is the obvious benchmark. If public sector pay at the upper level is crazy, well, can you blame the charity chiefs for just keeping the head down?

Kerins’ case is in a different realm. If her salary was to be benchmarked against the public sector, she would be sitting atop government buildings tossing alms to the great unwashed.

Equally, her refusal to divulge the level of remuneration puts her in a unique position.

Public sector salaries are in the public domain. The bloated packages of the chiefs of public companies are published. This information is disseminated because both the state and public companies engage with the wider public and shareholders. If the public is required to invest confidence in these entities, it is deemed necessary to open up the books.

How can the public continue to have confidence in Rehab? The service it provides is beyond reproach, but what are people handing over money for?

Kerins’ supporters point out that Rehab is more akin to a commercial semi-state than a charity, and her salary is benchmarked accordingly. This in turn raises questions about what exactly is the function of the organisation. There is a screaming need for an entity to train people with disabilities, who continue to be discriminated against in the workplace. But if only 14% of trainees fall into this category, what is the point of such a huge organisation? Could it merely be, like so many other state and private entities during the bubble, that it has grown to be a vehicle to build an empire?

Other aspects of her position raise other questions. Rehab imports coffin components through a China-based company in which her brother is a director. Kerins’ husband was also a director of the company, but is understood to no longer be so. The coffins are assembled by Rehab employees in Kilkenny. It is impossible to see how a conflict of interest doesn’t exist.

She was at the centre of another possible conflict when she was on the board of the National Disability Authority, until her departure in late 2009. If, for instance, an employee of Rehab had an issue over work-related issues, it is to the NDA they would take their complaint. And sitting on the board of the NDA was the boss of Rehab.

Her connections to both Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael reaped benefits over the years as she was appointed to a number of state boards and agencies.

One such agency was the Equality Authority, to which she was appointed chairperson in September 2007. The following year, the board members were paid a stipend for the first time since the establishment of the authority in 2000. As chair, her own few bob came to €14,000.

Niall Crowley, who was regarded as passionate advocate for those on the margins, resigned over severe budget cuts in 2008. She had no problem with the budget cuts, and, according to Crowley’s version, little problem with his departure.

Kerins has been an effective advocate for people with disabilities over the years. Her ability to befriend politicians has worked to Rehab’s advantage, and that must be a good thing. She was also a perfect product of the state crony capitalism that saw money being flung around during the bubble years, usually at those close to the centres of power. Times change, and if Rehab expects to retain the confidence of the public, it would do well to show a little transparency, and explain why Angela Kerins is paid as she is. It might even turn out that she’s worth it.

By Sinead Ryan

Monday 11th April 2011.

WITH a Rehab facility right on my doorstep, it’s a charity I regularly support.

Just this weekend there was a fundraiser on — a low-key auction where all the usual suspects turned out, gave their services for free, and a few bob was made.

There have been pub quizzes, fashion shows and all manner of things in the past.

Smiles

It’s also a cause which celebrities including Rosanna Davison, Alan Hughes and Aoife Cogan have lent their smiles to, and tin rattlers are regularly seen selling their lottery tickets and cheerfully attempting to extract you from your money.

It’s hard not to want to support a disability charity, right?

So that’s why it sticks in my craw that the CEO of this not-for-profit organisation, Angela Kerins, earns more than €400,000 a year.

That’s more than the Taoiseach or President gets.

The charity is at pains to point out that none of this comes from State funding (of which they have received a generous €365m over the past five years), but that is to miss the point.

Rehab is non-profit making, so whatever money goes to highly paid staff automatically means less for disability sufferers.

Doesn’t it also mean that if Ms Kerins’ salary isn’t coming from State coffers, it’s coming from me, and those like me who give a fiver or a tenner here and there?

Being the chief executive of a huge charity — one which employs 3,500 people — is as challenging, if not more challenging, as running a large commercial organisation.

Nobody is disputing that.

But in an era when salaries of over €200k for the heads of vast Government organisations are considered too high, a salary of twice that for the head of a charitable organisation defies logic.

Perhaps in my naivete it never occurred to me how much some charity workers earn — I’m pleased they do; it’s a hard job, but this much? Come on, please!

Nobody’s arguing that the skillset required of a CEO isn’t huge.

Kerins is clearly a highly competent person and is a member of several boards.

She is on the Equality Authority. She is also on the National Disability Authority and HIQA board. A busy lady. It doesn’t stop there.

The Broadcasting Commission uses her board acumen, as does Comreg.

Healthy

Rehab is currently in the news because new Minister Kathleen Lynch is asking it (and others) to sign up to service level agreements to determine what it is spending its money on.

Rehab’s profits look healthy, although its comprehensive website — which seems to want to tell us the financials — omits specific details on staff pay.

Perhaps in her overhaul of the charity sector, Minister Lynch might consider it’s time to cut down on the extent of its expenditure on salaries.

If everywhere else is being asked to take a hit, why are charity bosses any different?

After all, there’s less money going around for everyone — and many people will be reluctantly deciding that they cannot afford to give quite so generously.

If charity begins at home, then leadership begins at the top.

- Sinead Ryan – Evening Herald.

Charities may be required to reveal full financial accountability, as disability organisation faces criticism over high wage packets for bosses
Justine McCarthy

Former Miss World Rosanna Davison helped launch the charity’s online bingo site Former Miss World Rosanna Davison helped launch the charity’s online bingo site

The Sunday Times can reveal that the Rehab Group, Ireland’s largest disability-services charity, has received more than €365m from various state agencies in the past five years.

More than €33m of it came from the Charitable Lotteries Fund, set up to compensate charities for income lost to the National Lottery. Rehab’s total income from the fund since it was established in 1997 exceeds €75m.

It emerged three weeks ago that Angela Kerins, chief executive of Rehab Group, has an annual remuneration package worth more than €400,000. The charity, which employs 3,500 people and has a €200m annual turnover, says senior executives’ salaries are not drawn from state funds.

There is now a disagreement between Rehab and the Department of Health over an ultimatum issued by the Health Service Executive (HSE). On March 29, the HSE told charities in the disability sector they were to sign formal agreements requiring full financial accountability by April 11, or lose their funding.

Tomorrow is the deadline for compliance in signing the service level agreements (SLA), which set out details of the services the charities provide with the money they get from the HSE. The bulk of Rehab’s funding — almost €221m in the past five years — was allocated by the HSE as revenue and capital grants.

According to a spokesman for Kathleen Lynch, the junior minister responsible for the disability sector, Rehab and one other organisation had not signed SLA agreements last Friday evening. Lynch’s spokesman said the need for SLAs was raised by the comptroller and auditor general, who was concerned about accountability in voluntary organisations. The spokesman said the HSE had been working with the groups in recent years to develop agreements, and Lynch is “particularly concerned that two disability organisations, one of which is Rehab, have not yet signalled their willingness to sign SLAs”.

“It is not acceptable that large sums of state funding be provided to any organisation without appropriate accountability for those funds,” he said.

But a spokesman for the Rehab Group said: “We don’t know what they’re talking about. All three of the SLAs we have received have been signed by us. There is nothing outstanding, except one we haven’t received which they [the HSE] told us was going to be in the post. We’ve signed and returned everything we’ve got, up to and including last Friday.”

On Thursday, the HSE met the three umbrella bodies representing the disability sector — the Not for Profit Business Association, Disability Federation of Ireland, and the National Federation of Voluntary Bodies. All three indicated that they would advise members to sign the SLA agreements by tomorrow.

“The indications are that Rehab will be signing their service agreement,” said Lynch’s spokesman.

The Department of Education provides substantial funding to Rehab. It allocated grant aid amounting to €4.6m over the past five years to National Learning Network, for the education of young adults with learning disabilities. Another Rehab subsidiary, TBG Learning, a UK-based training provider, has a €7.5m contract with the Department of Education to provide training and employment for 1,900 unemployed people under the auspices of the Labour Market Activation Fund. Rehab won the lion’s share of contracts issued to 55 organisations funded by the €32m fund. The group received €25m last year from Fas, the state training agency.

Rehab’s Scottish subsidiary, Momentum, has received £699,982 (€792,000) from Britain’s Big Lottery Fund since May 2006 to provide services for people with spinal and brain injuries.

State funding to all disability organisations is being examined by the Department of Health in a review due to be completed by the end of this year.

Minister Burton launches National Advocacy Service for People with Disabilities

“Equality is at the heart of what it means to be a citizen in our democracy. This Government believes that everyone has the right to be free from discrimination and that we all benefit from living in a more equal society”, said the Minister for Social Protection, Joan Burton TD, today (30th March 2011) as she launched the National Advocacy Service for people with disabilities.

“This message from the Programme for Government is very relevant today as we launch a service whereby a trained independent person who, on the basis of understanding a client’s needs and wishes, will advise and support that client to make a decision or claim an entitlement and who will, if appropriate, go on to negotiate or make a case for them.”

The National Advocacy Service, which will be managed by five Citizens Information Services in five regions across the country, will work with vulnerable people with disabilities in institutions and in the community. It will provide a professional, independent, mainstream representative advocacy service to those people with a disability that require such a service.

Minister Burton continued: “The national element of the service means that on the ground it will be available on an equal basis to any individual with a disability who needs it; the fact that it is organised in five regions means that it will be accessible with no client too far from an advocate; and the configuration of the service with five dedicated managers employed by the Citizens Information Services and the support of the Citizens Information Board means that it will be a high quality service with consistent standards throughout.”

Minister Burton went on to explain: “A major function of advocacy is to assist these people by providing an independent guide to services and options, someone to assist them at official proceedings and, in some instances, through the move to living in the community. It is particularly important that an independent person is available to them where they are totally dependent on a single service provider. Essentially the service will level the playing field and provide a voice for the more vulnerable of people with disabilities”.

Minister Burton concluded by thanking the staff of the Citizens Information Services and the Citizens Information Board and the organisations which contributed to the pilot programme. The Minister also wished the advocates and their managers who are embarking on this chapter in the development of a truly valuable service for people with disabilities in Ireland every success in their work.

Press Release Ends

Justine McCarthy – Sunday Times 27th March 2011

The annual salary, bonus and expenses totalling more the €400,000 a year reportedly being paid to Angela Kerins, the chief executive of the Rehab Group, have been described as “exorbitant” by a leading disability campaigner.

“It’s something that has to be questioned, especially in light of the economic situation, when people with disability have had cuts in their €186.00 allowance,” said Frieda Finlay, chairwoman of Inclusion Ireland, which represents the interests of those with intellectual disabilities.

The Phoenix reported last week that Kerins, who also chairs the National Disabilities Authority (NDA), a state disability agency; received a salary “well over” €300.000 plus a bonus of €70.000 from Rehab. It calculated that, with pension entitlements, car benefits and expenses, Kerins annual salary was worth up to €500,000.

Last week, Michael Parker, a spokesman for Kerins, said he was not free to divulge details of her remuneration because Rehab was a private, not-for-profit organisation.

Rehab provides training and employment for people with disabilities in Ireland, Britain, the Netherlands and Poland. Two years ago, the Health Service Executive provided €54m of its €202m income.

“I think all agencies should have their salaries opened up for scrutiny,” said Finlay. “I’m also concerned that there’s a potential conflict of interest as [Kerins] is head of the NDA.”

When asked about Complete Eco Solutions (CES), which supplies Rehab with coffin components and lists Kerin’s husband, Sean Kerins and her brother, Joseph Mc Carthy as directors, Parker said: “Complete Eco Solutions has nothing to do with Rehab other than to help them with the supply of wood from China.

“Her [Angela’s] brother has been based in China for about 20 years. They went to him for help with sourcing materials. Her husband is no longer a director.”

CES supplies wooden panels for coffins which are assembled by Rehab employees in Kilkenny. Frank Flannery, Rehab’s former chief executive and Fine Gael’s deputy director of elections, is a director.

Rehab hosts the People of the Year awards ceremony at Citywest hotel in Dublin where Kerins stays in the presidential suite each year.

“The hotel gives five or six rooms on a complimentary basis, including the presidential suite. It is used by other people as well,” said Parker.

Kerins is co-chair with Philip Lynch, chief executive of One51, of the Ireland First group of 17 businesses and political figures who have written A Blueprint for Change.

They plan to discuss the policy document for Ireland’s economic recovery with the Taoiseach and the Tanaiste.