From top: Console CEO Paul Kelly and the charity’s former patron Mary McAleese in 2011; The panel on TV3’s Tonight with Vincent Browne last night
Last night.
On Tonight with Vincent Browne, hosted by Matt Cooper, the panel discussed the payments made to Console CEO Paul Kelly, his wife Patricia and son Tim – as recently reported by RTE Investigates.
The panel included Fine Gael Senator Michael Conway, Fianna Fáil TD Niall Collins; interim CEO of Console David Hall; and columnist with the Irish Independent Colette Browne.
Matt Cooper: “Did this come out of nowhere, is this only something that’s happened in recent times? Or for how long have people in authority been aware that there’s a problem?”
David Hall: “You know my function, when we came in, was to carry out this review and as I said to everyone concerned at the time, only the truth will be expressed from mine and those involved’s perspective. The review and the analysis of the HSE began in April 2015. The first interim report was given on the 1st of July, 2015. These are the documents I’ve seen and I have. The…”
Cooper: “A year ago?”
Hall: “A year ago. The ninth…”
Cooper: “Money was still being given to Console, Console was still actually taking money from the public, was getting money from the State, for a year after the HSE knew there was a big problem here?”
Hall: “Yes. The ninth version of this report was given to the board in March of this year.”
Cooper: “The ninth?”
Hall: “The ninth version and there is one more version I believe which is being tided up and is the final version not yet released by the HSE. The last version I have, and the one I relied upon in court today, with Justice Gilligan was version number nine. 176 pages. Actually, and this might sound a bit odd to say this but it’s a brilliant report. The people who conducted, this actually makes the situation ten times worse than you would imagine. The quality and the content of that report would be, for its investigative manners and information that it garnished, is brilliant.”
Watch back in full here
Previously: No Consolation
This is laughable if you know anything about David Hall and the charity he founded in his early 20s.
Still beating your wife?
David Hall is interim CEO? You have to laugh, you really do.
Laugh? No, not at all.
One thing that strikes me about many of the prominent or celebrity types that attach themselves to charities. The primary purpose being to enhance their ‘personal brand’. Every one of these shits is hiding in plain view
What ye mean another scandal.
Charities, shrr was that not in the news about a year ago, with a scandal back then about the central remedial clinic and others.
Here we go again.
Banana republic.
Septic isle
Screaming in the suffering seas etc.
Why has Kelly not been arrested yet? I find it hard to believe that nothing he has done so far can be considered criminal in the law (falsification of accounts for example?)
Fraud/white collar cases take a bit longer to put together.
Especially when we totally underfund and under-resource the departments.
If the social welfare suspect that your claim is in any way dodgy, they immediately suspend payment and do not recommence until they have invesitgated to their satisfaction that all is OK. But it’s OK to keep barrelling money to this scr*te until the report has been changed to status “final”.
One rule for the unemployed and another rule for ball bags.
He is being asked to give back his People of the Year award, that ought to teach him a lesson.
http://www.thejournal.ie/paul-kelly-console-people-of-the-year-award-return-2856528-Jul2016/
lol
Harsh treatment that.
It’s awful though.. all you can do is laugh. That’ll be about the extent of any punishment he’ll receive.
Paul Kelly no longer has access to the console’s accounts or assets. His whereabouts is unknown.
Next he will be running for the dail.
Well.
the ninth version of the report! lol!
The length the establishment in Ireland will go to cover stuff up or make it go away!
Well I don’t know, I just see Hall saying that it was version 9. I regularly write documents that go up to v0.9 before they’re released.
Maybe it’s just that there were 9 versions saved and somebody was doing some basic version control, rather than that they published 9 reports before he saw one.
i dont think tis that simple like and edit of a typo here and there.
Essentially they wrote the report and someone higher up told them to water down sections and bury other stuff. Thats the jist im taking away here. ie. to deflect away any responsibility the HSE has over tax payers money they gave to this fraudster.
I’m feeling a bit strapped for cash, and I’d like to go on holiday to the Far East. I think I’ll start a charity, seems like an easy enough scam to pull in this poxy country
You can but laugh.
Interim CEO David Hall
FFS
When I tell ye to stay da’úck away from Charities and Non Profit Organisations with CEOs that love the camera
This is why
The next story that breaks
I’m gonna say
SUCKERS!
You said stay away from them all, you’re only recently after qualifying it
This poo is going on for years
Look at Hall
A Charity Hopper Camera Hogger if there ever was
No Professional Credentials What So Ever
Yer man
Professor Coffey made absolute poo ov’im on PT
Yet Hall’s narcissism is still being watered
I see your point LW re: the qualifying statement.
… I would say we need competent CEOs to run charities, to take care of the business- end of providing services, but we also need people to promote and raise the profile of the particular cause.
We would also like more stringent regulation and resources to root-out fraud and hopefully discourage people like Paul Kelly.
I would note two points though:
a) Other than general audits it is hard to unpick clever accounting. Without a whistle-blower it is hard to justify selecting a particular individual or organisation for scrutiny. Apparently there was a whistle-blower in this case and a past conviction for fraud yet we also want to give people a chance to redeem themselves and maybe the HSE were being extra careful; careless investigation and incorrect findings might damage a genuine person’s reputation.
b) I’ve heard the following complaint in relation to government and EU regulations: that intricate paperwork and detailed conditions that give a fair and neutral assessment and that would expose wrongdoing or fraud also serve to penalise those in small organisations and businesses that don’t have the range of expertise and specific people to deal with “red-tape”.
It’s a tricky balance and I think it has been largely neglected or ignored with respect to charities and now we see how the goodwill and desire to help have been abused.
I suppose I do have issue with some people, like I sometimes do*, who immediately jump to the conclusion that “they” are all corrupt and self-serving because of the actions of a few.
*It’s very difficult to see cases like this, again and again, with no follow-up like a general audit and investigation of the sector to restore confidence.
It’s difficult when you walk out of a shop or a supermarket and the chuggers are there, and they look directly at you, and say ‘support such and such please’… And you give them a few bob and they’re like ‘ah bless you dear, there’s a place in heaven for you’. It’s an Irish guilt thing.. they’re hard to walk past and ignore.
Is it true that he hasn’t broken any laws, that all the details people are talking about only relate to company law and don’t apply to charities?
Who would ehh ever have ehh, guessed that there would be so many, quote charities in Ireland.
The motto being, ehh, give a little and take, quite a lot actually.
As some of charities, say, quote, charity begins at home, it sure does.
Why was not action taken on the 1st July last year, in other words who knew
what when….HSE and the Charities Regulator have questions to answer and
who audited the accounts over the last couple of years, whats difference between
version 1 and version 9 of the Report.