BRIAN CONLAN, WHO this week resigned as the head of the Central Remedial Clinic in a row over top-up payments, has said that he believed his salary was only being paid through the Health Service Executive.

Conlan, who declined to appear before today’s sitting of the Public Accounts Committee, issued a statement this afternoon contradicting some of the statements made to the committee.

In the statement he says he would not have agreed to top-ups to his salary being paid through the Friends and Supporters of the Central Remedial Clinic charity.

“Brian Conlan’s understanding regarding the funding of his salary while with the CRC is that it was funded in its entirety with recourse exclusively to monies received from the HSE funding allocation. He would not have agreed to being paid monies sourced from charitable public donations,” says the statement.Over

Overpayment

Despite refusing to appear before the PAC, Conlan’s statement disagreed with some of the statements made, saying that he had paid back the money he was paid that was in excess of the HSE pay cap.

“Deputy Kieran O’Donnell stated in the PAC meeting today that Mr Conlan had repaid €40,000 in respect of the salary amount received in excess of the HSE payscales.

“This is erroneous as Mr Conlan was not in receipt of a payment of €40,000 in excess of the HSE guidelines. During his five month tenure, the Chief Executive’s pay was set in excess of the HSE’s payscales for just three months.

“Mr Conlan was paid net of tax and he has given a cheque payable to the CRC for the purpose of reimbursing the value of the net salary he received in excess of the HSE payscale during the three months while the Board of the CRC and the HSE were in negotiation over the salary level.”

Read: Former CRC chief executive got €200k lump-sum payment from charity fund

Read: CRC ‘contractually bound’ to top up salaries