Gerald Nash (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I would like to share in the expression of sympathy to the people of Turkey after yesterday's horrendous terrorist attack and utterly meaningless loss of life. I share the condolences expressed by Senator Conway-Walsh. I visited Turkey on a number of occasions in recent years, once in an official capacity, and I was really struck by the warmth and hospitality of the Turkish people. Notwithstanding the fact that I am personally quite disturbed about the moves in Turkey towards a more autocratic style of government, our affection for the people of Turkey should remain. Our sense of anger at the horrendous attack in Istanbul airport yesterday is shared by everybody. We should all express our sympathy to the people of Turkey and the Turkish Government on the horrendous loss of life in Atatürk airport.

With regard to the situation at Console, I believe the comments made in the House by a number of speakers reflect the real public anger at the way in which certain directors of Console appear to have used the organisation as their own personal ATM in recent years. Over a period of time, lavish spending was clocked up on the charity's multiple credit cards, including on clothes, dental work and cash withdrawals. What we know now about how Console was run makes it very hard to comprehend where Console starts and where the interests of a number of directors ends. A charity should not be made or operated in the image of its founder or of any one person. If anything, it should be held up to an extremely high standard of corporate governance and ethical codes.

The scandal is a major test for the relatively newly founded Charities Regulatory Authority. A number of very important questions must be answered by the charities regulator, by the Government and by other agencies in an effort to restore trust in what is a very important organisation. In the first instance, there needs to be an unambiguous statement from the charity itself that its founding director is not still in charge, as there appears to ambiguity around that. The charities regulator must make it very clear how and when it is going to deploy a number of independent trustees to ensure there is robust governance in the organisation and that the organisation restore the public trust, which has been so badly damaged.

I also wish to establish whether the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement, ODCE, will investigate the alleged conduct of the directors concerned, which has been revealed in media reports in recent days. I agree that there has been a huge amount of public investment in Console. It was not only a matter of public financial resources; people trust the organisation and people trust the staff in Console. I would argue that there are a considerable number of people in this country who owe their lives to the services delivered to them by the organisation. In the efforts to establish the facts around this case and our efforts to re-establish trust in the organisation, which must happen, we should not in any sense blame the staff. Trust has to be restored, and it is the job of Government, the organisation itself and the relevant regulator to do that.