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THE FATHER OF Donal Walsh, the late teenager who spoke out about suicide prevention, has said he is “shocked and disappointed” by the revelations about Console.
The charity’s founder and CEO Paul Kelly stepped down after financial irregularities discovered by a HSE audit were made public in an a RTÉ Investigations Unit programme for Prime Time.
It emerged that half a million euro was spent on foreign trips, designer clothes, eating out and other expenses between 2012 and 2014 – while another half a million was spent on salaries and cars for Kelly and his wife Patricia Kelly.
Speaking on Morning Ireland, Fionnbar Walsh defended the work being done by Console’s staff.
Before his death from cancer in 2013, Donal spoke about the importance of young people getting help for mental health issues.
His family set up the #LiveLife foundation in his memory and donated about €30,000 to Console to fund teenage counselling rooms in various locations across in the country.
Walsh said he was “shocked and disappointed” and “drastically deflated” by the revelations.
He said he didn’t deal with Paul Kelly directly, but thinks he “met him about three times”, adding: “He was a person who explained to us where Console came out of, with his own sister’s death.”
As far as we’re concerned, [Console is] still a good organisation. It is still dealing with people who have difficulties with suicide and families who are suffering from bereavement because of suicide.
“We’d be sad, you know, in the long-term if Console shut down tomorrow and Donal’s rooms weren’t there. We’d prefer if Console still goes on, whatever name it comes under or whatever guise it comes under,” Walsh said.
The charities regulator has appointed five new trustees to the Console’s board.
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Fionnbar is an incredible man. He came to our school a couple of years ago. Never wants a penny. He just wants to raise awareness and have his sons legacy live on. I can see why he’d be disgusted with the chancers over Console
I see they have now moved to freeze funds so those that were robbing them have no access. What about a garda investigation and arrests, and sacking the regulator without pay and loss of pension. This would be a proper start to sorting out this mess.
The regulator was hampered,it would seem, by a lack of proper powers and poor legislation
Nothing to stop the regulator going to the press or to a TD and get them to use Daíl privilege to inform the good people out there about this swindle.
How did this Paul Kelly ever be allowed such control over a charity? He has form as a con man for years. People raised concerns but were ignored. It’s just not good enough.
Because its ok to be a white collar crook in this country
@Jimmyjoe because this is Ireland…where the nod n wink mantra prospers freely whilst those elect to govern remain unaccountable and detached from actually governing for the best interest of the citizens
@Dave 100% my friend…its Fr aud on a major level and still no sign of arrests or real action and all along authorities, including the former Health Minister, were told about this!!
The Public Accounts committee needs to rip into the HSE and find out why millions of euros in taxpayers money was given to Paul Kelly in recent years even though they were aware that there were serious accountability issues with the charity.
Heads must roll.
On the question of the regulator – blameless – he was given no money, no staff and no powers by the government who dragged their feet on the legislation……….as usual.
Awful shambles of a country.
’9th most reputable country in the world?’
What a joke.
Odhran
We all know heads will not roll, and if they do they will be on full pay and pension which means they will get the same entitlements for doing nothing. No wonder noting is sorted there are no conquences
Time to sort this out – get the Revenue Commissioners involved.
At this point I’m think CAB should get involved!
That’s what I was thinking Tricia. Paul Kelly and his wife’s assets should be seized (including the family home) to help pay back what they stole. That should be a good deterrent.
I would say that this Console scandal is just the tip of the iceberg. When I read the words from a “charity” that “works with” certain groups the alarm goes off in my head. It’s sometimes code for ” we spend the money on OUR salaries and as a by product of us being well paid we get (unpaid) volunteers to answer phones and do other charitable fundraising events to raise more money and hire more staff to “work with” certain groups!!!”
When Paul Kelly and co appear before the PAC not one f*ck will be given and he’ll probably try and defend/justify the spending. People who profit from charities in this way and from other people’s misery are pure skum and have no morals whatsoever.
DO a little digging , and the clue is Kellys recruitment agency , not the one in cork, its another fine story, business folded, lots of money extracted , twas a fair few yrs ago, lets just say he has form …
Why has Paul Kelly not been arrested?
Who is protecting him? And for how long? Brown paper envelopes are the envelopes of choice for some…
We have over 8000 charities and the regulator only took up his position in May 2016. Without any powers or staff, his office was created by legislation in 2009. console is 1 of 28 charities unde investigation by the HSE but all are still being financed by the taxpayer. Politicians are looking for everyone else to blame for their own failures because people running charities do not want to be regulated, same as the bank, same as the insurance companies, same as lawyers or auctioneers the list is endless all this practices have lobbied for self regulation and won against the taxpayer. We have politicians praising charities for the work but these are the first budgets that get raided when the media storm die down. The problem is charities are used for money laundering where you get tax credits for every euro you donate.
Kelly’s should be ashamed of themselves full force of the law should be used to recover this money and given back to the hard workers in console for the work the do !
The Service Manager of the children’s cancer charity ‘Hand in Hand’ was on Mid-West and Galway Bay FM yesterday, telling the extraordinary story of the shafting that THEY received at the hands of the HSE. My words, not hers.
This was a case where a small charity really got screwed over — and €400,000 that they should have recieved went instead to…well, where? Ask the HSE; but so far they’re not saying.
As appalling as the ‘Console’ outrage is, I hope that this one doesn’t get overlooked — because it is quite monstrous.
Hopefully the wonderful work being done on the ground will not be in any way affected by a rotten apple.
What I would like to see at this point is fine people like Mr Walsh here, Derry Clarke, TD’s and other prominent folk shouting from the rooftops about how despicable this situation is and that we the Irish people will not be satisfied until the Gardai are brought in on this, CAB have started an investigation, and that there is the promise of criminal proceedings against these vile subhumans. They need to seize assets, return money to Console and jail these disgusting people. We have a desperate, desperate need in this country for Mental Health services, services that the Government has been shy about providing for a decade or more and when we try to provide them ourselves we get shafted by the likes of Paul, Patricia and Tim Kelly et al. There is a fine young man from Claremorris, Co Mayo, walking around Ireland at the moment. He is walking over 2000 kms over 3 months to raise funds for Pieta House, a suicide prevention charity like Console, and he is doing the whole thing in his bare feet. Let us not make a mockery of his amazing sacrfice for a worthy charity or make a mockery of all the other thousands of great people who freely give of their time, money, resources and effort in the support of many charity organisations in an attempt to help our people who are down on their luck and who need a leg up. Those people down on their luck are our sisters and brothers, our mothers and fathers, our sons and daughters, and sometimes even ourselves.
To summarise this case:
The Kelly’s stole over €500,000 of funds destined for suicide prevention, the real figure if we ever get an investigation will probably be twice that or more.
The HSE apparently had misgivings about Paul Kelly years ago and did nothing to speak out about it and instead continued to give taxpayers money to him and his family. Collusion maybe?
They spent the money on making themselves happy by buying World Cup Rugby Tickets and holidays all over the world while others were left to suffer in their wake.
Paul Kelly insisted on being the only person to open mail at Console, presumably so that he could steal all the cash and cheques that came in by post.
Since the Primetime report he has apparently destroyed files in the Console Office.
He has returned to work and said its business as usual.
It would not suprise me at all if spending continued on some of those credit cards after the Primetime show.
Our government so far, has done nothing, and in essence is a supporter of this carry on by not taking a stand against it.
The goverment does not wish to pursue criminal proceedings so far and at the same time does not wish to fund and provide Mental Health services to it’s citizens, a double slap in the face.
Brexit is of far more concern to the great Enda Kenny than this issue it would appear.
If anyone wants to keep track of Eamonn Keaveney’s great adventure, Baring my Soles for Pieta House, and possibly make a contribution the facebook page is https://www.facebook.com/BaringMySoles/
I take on board all your comments about the current scandal re Console. However I personally would not be contributing to Pieta. While a very worthwhile organisation they are taking in thousands of Euro from Darkness in Light which is now an annual event with a major sponsor. Do they need further contributions from members of the public .????
Hi David B, fair point but possibly we all underestimate the costs of providing these types of services. A person who is suicidal may require many tens of hours of counselling time and unfortunately this does not come cheap. I’m sure someone else who knows more about this will be along to elaborate. Thanks for your comment.
And by the way, whoever it is in the HSE that is responsible for not taking action on this years ago should be sacked and jailed. The HSE is riddled with incompetent traitors and needs a serious overhaul as soon as possible. Otherwise get ready for the next HSE related scandal, coming to Primetime in the near future.
In Ireland the more you rob the Less truble you get into
This Family have put so much into their sons wishes and the amount of money they collected and to think you have this thief is using it for their own personal fund .Its a sad state of affairs when you have all these Charities being ripped off .I really think it is time to call a halt to all of this their should be one fund to deal with and divided between them all.
Why does the state gives money to charity for essential services?
You’ve just answered your own question, they are quasi public sector. But they also get to ask public for more money and employ the services of other companies in their expenses account, fingers crossed there are no conflicts of interest there, giving the in-laws’ companies contracts, etc.
Don’t forget, using charities to purchase assets such as land/buildings from directors/mates at inflated prices.
Shame on anyone to infringe on the spirit of Donal Walsh and his family. But what will our regulators do, read this below, a comment The Independent refuse to allow; is it that there are connections in this little country of ours?
The latest scheme of a solicitor long suspected of systemic fraud on an industrial scale is registering shares in the owners name but at his address, then when the person passes on he cashes in the shares and trousers the proceeds. In instances where he was caught out, he claims that he has another client with exactly the same names and date of birth. E.g. He has two Alexander Aideen Deirdre O’Connor-O’Gorman DOB 27/3/’1965, etc. There are massive US wills being laundered while the rightful recipients don’t even know they were left money. In other cases they are told ‘there wasn’t much left’, or that he made up the shortfall himself and not to worry.
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