Gabrielle McFadden (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

In my home town of Athlone, a Console centre was opened this year. The community in the midlands rallied and Console was very quickly inundated with people's generosity. Vast numbers of people in the midlands came on board; tradespeople and business people gave of their time, trade and money. Business people in the town and the wider area provided fixtures, fittings and furniture for the centre. At the time Paul Kelly said the community had really taken ownership of this project and thanks to their incredible efforts they were able to offer hope and help to people in the midlands who were struggling with mental health issues or suicide. The centre even included a Donal room for teenagers. Donal Walsh is a young boy who died from cancer and who used the last months of his life to talk to people about the preciousness of life and appeal to young people not to take their own lives. His family helped to fund the Donal room in the Athlone centre. It was a significant achievement for them to do that in memory of their son.

When people are affected by the suicide of a loved one, they feel abandoned. They have many unanswered questions. For many, counselling is a lifeline. It offers a safe haven to try to make sense of life's rupture, a place to learn to trust again and perhaps a place of hope. The CEO of Console took that away. The goodwill of people was abused. He broke the trust of some of the most vulnerable people in Ireland. Some of the therapists who work in the centres have not been paid in more than two months but, because they recognise the supreme importance of the work they do, they have continued to work with their clients so as not to abandon them again or break their trust again, and in order not to reawaken the trauma they have been through.

We must ask why this happened. The Console catastrophe points to a much deeper problem in the Government and in society. We recognise a problem such as suicide when it is all too late, only to scatter money at a plethora of organisations that have already sprung up to stem the tide, which they do as best they can. The lack of vision, absence of strategic planning and unregulated spending breeds fly-by-night CEOs similar to what we have encountered in Console.

We need to pick up the pieces from that catastrophe. We have a responsibilities to protect our most vulnerable, not despite adversity, but because of it. I urge the Minister of State to keep the counselling centres around the country, and particularly in Athlone, open and to ensure continued funding of these vital services.