John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am grateful to the Cheann Comhairle for listing this issue among the Topical Issue matters for today. I thank the Minister of State, Deputy McEntee for dealing with this.

A lot of media and public attention has correctly been focused on the emerging administrative, management oversight, employee, auditing and financial aspects of the Console scandal, but there is, as I am sure the Minister of State will appreciate, another dimension to this story of equal importance, which until today has not gathered much traction. That concerns the clients the charity serves. The focus over the last two weeks has correctly been on the emerging scandalous management of what is known as the national suicide charity, Console.

While the mismanagement of Console has been to the forefront and the news has focused on how the organisation was managed essentially as a constant credit supply to its chief executive without proper supervision or auditing, while simultaneously being in receipt of significant State funding, I am sure the Minister of State will agree that there are voices which have not been heard and which have been given little volume since the story first broke. They are the voices of clients who, most disturbingly, seem to be the very last to be considered as talk of a wind-down of Console gains traction.

The question of what would happen to the clients of Console arose once last week. They are the individuals who turned to its counselling service for help because they were suicidal or had familial experience of suicide. One answer suggests the services of Console will be transferred to another agency. Several agencies have been mentioned in this context. Neither of the two agencies I have heard mentioned specialises in the services offered by Console in the past ten or 15 years and this point has been made in the media and on social media. As the Minister of State is aware, Console is specialised and provides bereavement counselling services. A profound challenge which is unlikely to be met by those responsible for dealing with the financial and administration issues which have arisen concerns where the clients have been left. The CEO of the HSE moved today to address some of these issues but in a general way. However, I very much welcome his intervention and some of what he said. The HSE has contingency plans in place which involve maintaining the existing services and replacement services. I wish to focus on replacement services.

After the Minister of State responds, I may have further questions to ask.

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