Kerins seeks damages over treatment by PAC vultures

Former Rehab CEO Angela Kerins was assailed by a pack of parliamentary vultures when the Dils Public Accounts Committee (PAC) was investigating state funding of the organisation, her lawyer told the High Court yesterday.

Ms Kerins also suffered devastating injuries as a direct consequence of questioning of her by the PAC on February 27, 2014, John Rogers said.

He was speaking during an application to Ms Justice Isobel Kennedy for an order of discovery of documents Ms Kerins says she needs in advance of her action against the PAC.

In judicial review proceedings, she seeks a number of declarations and orders including one restraining the PAC from further pursuing the examination of Rehabs accounts insofar as they relate to her employment with that organisation. She is also seeking damages.

The action is against the members of the PAC including the chairman, Deputy John McGuinness, the clerk of Dil Eireann, the clerk of the PAC, Ireland and the attorney general.

She claims the PAC has conducted itself unlawfully, showed bias towards her, acted outside its remit, and has committed a malfeasance in public office.

Mr Rogers said in advance of attending the February 27 PAC, Ms Kerins had already made a public statement disclosing her salary and yet was subjected to questioning about it at the meeting.

What unfolded was an excoriating examination by members of PAC in which a number of references were made about Ms Kerins including her being stubborn and the like, counsel said.

As a result, she was injured and degraded and suffered a significant health setback and when I say significant I mean devastatingly significant injuries, counsel said. She was hospitalised in early March, initially in Waterford and later in the Beacon in Dublin, he said.

While counsel did not want to get into the detail at this stage, when this case comes to full trial it will be fully particularised and it will be quite clear the injury was devastating.

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Kerins seeks damages over treatment by PAC vultures