Rehab rejects Shatter comments in Dáil

Rehab has slammed comments made in the Dáil last night by Justice Minister Alan Shatter and said it expects an apology.

Rehab has slammed comments made in the Dáil last night by Justice Minister Alan Shatter and said it expects an apology.

"It is with considerable surprise that the Rehab Group learned that Minister Alan Shatter made comments in the Dáil on matters that are clearly pending before the courts and in which the State is the defendant," Rehab said in a statement.

"For a Minister who was or is a solicitor and thus an officer of the court to comment in this manner is simply outrageous.

"We expect the Minister to withdraw his remarks and apologise."

The organisation said it was "very disappointed in the Minister's conduct".

Minister Shatter last night revealed that the organisation's scratch card sales are not delivering and that the firm made a profit of less than €10,000 on card sales of nearly €4m in 2010.

He made the comments while defending his decision to end the charitable lotteries scheme, which he says is no longer fit for purpose.

Mr Shatter said Rehab was suing the State for up to €1.5bn in a separate litigation under competition law.

Minister Shatter says legal challenges are unfortunate.

"The Rehab Group and Rehab Lotteries have chosen to embark on separate litigation against the State under competition law, claiming damages of up to €1.5bn in connection with the operation of the National Lottery," he said.

“Whatever the outcome of this costly action, it is likely to exert a significant burden on either public resources or charity resources or both. This seems to me unfortunate at a time when both public and charity resources are under such extreme pressure to meet the frontline needs of our citizens as we work together towards our recovery."

The minister said an audit was carried out by the Department of Justice on the Charitable Lotteries Scheme funds received by Rehab for the two-year period from 2010/11. He said the audit found costs were so high they resulted “in a low profit margin”.

Mr Shatter said the audit revealed that of total Rehab Bingo Sales of €3.19m, profits for the company were €548,000.

In summary, the figures provided by Rehab show gross lottery sales of almost €7.2m in 2010, yielded a net profit of €558,000.

Rehab Lotteries’ chief Angela Kerins recently called for transparency in the charities sector but refused to reveal her salary when asked a number of times. Her salary is believed to be around €240,000.

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