Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

There is little doubt that in recent years, due to the number of scandals, public trust and confidence in the charity sector has been damaged because of the actions of a handful of people in a small number of organisations. Scandals involving generous salary top-up payments, gold-plated pensions and unjustifiable expense claims have been splashed across newspapers and television screens as well as exposed through the Committee of Public Accounts. These scandals have pointed to the need for greater regulation of the charity sector as well as the need for the State to step up to the mark in terms of service provision to avoid these scandals in future and to prevent the wasting of public charitable donations and State support in future.

The public has been rightly upset and dismayed at the recent scandals surrounding the charity Console. The body is known throughout the country and widely respected for its important work on suicide prevention and with bereaved families. Its name has been dragged through the mud because some senior figures were able to take advantage of the lax regulation and unchecked expenses and accounts. Of course, Console must take responsibility for the abuse of the trust of its supporters and those who depend on its services, but the State must play a role as well because it has failed to live up to its role, in spite of previous scandals at other bodies such as Rehab. Obviously, work has been done and improvements have been made to the Charities Regulatory Authority since the Rehab scandal. Still, we have had to rely on investigative work from RTE for the truth to come out.

Many charities operating in this country do so responsibly and they should not suffer for the wrongful actions of a handful of people. Paul Kelly, chief executive of Console, his wife, Patricia, and their son, Tim, benefited from almost €500,000 in salaries and cars between 2012 and 2014 with a further €500,000 spent during that period on Console credit cards for items including groceries, designer clothes and foreign trips. Between them Paul, Patricia and Tim Kelly used 11 credit cards over a three-year period. This scandalous use of charity funds is a slap in the face to other employees, supporters and the people the organisation serves. How much work could have been done with this money? Instead it was frittered away on luxuries. It is truly sickening.

What is the Government going to do to protect against this kind of abuse in future? How will it identify past abuses and bring them to light in order that people can again have faith in the charities to which they donate?

Charities like Console exist for the most part because of the failure of the State to provide adequately for the needs of the people. We are well aware of this. There is no state-wide crisis intervention service for adults and there are long waiting lists for counselling. This is the fault of the State for failing to deliver. It forces people to provide these services through charitable bodies which, unfortunately, are open to these kinds of abuses.

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