CONSOLE SCANDAL HAS LEFT US SHELL SHOCKED
Couple who raised €50,000 and met the disgraced founder speak of ‘devastation’
A FERNS COUPLE who have raised more than €50,000 for Console after losing their son to suicide, are ‘shell-shocked’ by the revelations of extravagant spending by the charity’s founder.
Pat and Brid Murphy met the disgraced Console founder Paul Kelly on a number of occasions at the Gerard Murphy Memorial vintage and classic car show and road run which they have organised annually for the past five years.
‘We’re devastated by what we’ve heard. We’re shell-shocked,’ said Brid, who availed of Console counselling services herself after 23-year-old Gerard tragically took his own life in 2011.
FERNS COUPLE Pat and Brid Murphy, who have raised over €50,000 for Console over the past five years, are ‘devastated’ by the financial scandal which has hit the suicide charity, but are adamant that the Wexford service is vital to the local community.
‘Like other people around the country, we’re devastated by what we’ve heard, but I would have to say that having had first-hand experience of the service in Wexford, it is second to none,’ said Brid who was on the verge of tears as she talked about recent revelations concerning the the finances of Console founder Paul Kelly, his wife Patricia and their son Tim.
An external examiner, David Hall, who was appointed to look into the finances of the service, said transactions carried out were inexcusable but insisted that the staff of Console had nothing to do with them and continued to provide a valuable service.
An RTÉ Investigations Unit programme reported that a draft audit report by the HSE showed Paul Kelly and the two family members benefitted to the tune of almost €1m in salaries and personal expenses in the three years be- tween 2012 and 2014.
The audit revealed details of how Mr Kelly and his wife and son received approximately €491,649 in salaries and cars and spent a further €464,777 on Console credit cards for items including groceries, designer clothes and foreign trips.
The cards were used for large cash withdrawals, trips to Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and other destinations, designer clothing in outlets such as Ralph Lauren and Hugo Boss, dining out, Rugby World Cup tickets and dental work.
Pat and Brid Murphy had personal reason to avail of the Console service nearly six years ago following the tragic death by suicide in January 2011 of their beloved 23-year-old son Gerard, and were so grateful for the help they received that they started the Gerard Murphy memorial vintage and classic car show and road run, which became a highly successful annual event.
In five and a half years, it has raised in excess of €50,000. Last year alone, the organisers presented a cheque for €15,500 to Console representatives.
Countless other organisations and individuals around the county have also held fundrais- ing events for Console over the six years since the service was established in the former hostel for homeless women owned by the St Vincent de Paul Society in Francis Street, Wexford.
In an interview in the Wexford People a fortnight ago, Wexford’s Console manager Denis O’Connor said: ‘ The generosity of the people of the south east since we started has been phenomenal. We have never lacked money.’
‘We have never been left short of money since we came into Wexford and it costs quite a lot to keep our bills paid and this premises open,’ said Mr O’Connor.
‘I’m so sad about this. We’re all very sad about it,’ said Brid Murphy in reaction to the financial scandal.
‘ The reason we started the fundraising was to make people aware of the service and to help continue it for other people who need it. It has now become what we do. It takes a lot of hard work’, said Brid, adding that Wexford manager Denis O’Connor and his staff run a fantastic service as do other centres around the country.
‘It’s Denis O’Connor and others like him around the country that keep people like me going. We’re doing it for heartfelt reasons, because we lost our son, to help ensure that nobody else has to look at their son in a coffin.’
Brid said the 2016 car show, which is the sixth annual event, will go ahead on October 2 as preparations are already well under way and the committee had decided before the Console revelations broke to give some of this year’s proceeds to another local charity.
She said the family will have to look at the outcome of an investigation by external examiner David Hall before deciding what to do in the future. ‘We really need to let the people who have been asked to investigate it to get on with the job,’ said Brid.
‘Everyone needs to have a clear head at the moment. Let them do their investigation and see what comes out of it. I want to wait and see the outcome of the investigation.’
‘ The most important thing is that the service is being provided. The examiner has said that any money raised for Console is being closely monitored. We’re hoping that the Console service will continue for the county because it is so needed’, said Brid.
Bríd and Pat met Console founder Paul Kelly several times during the past five years when he attended their fundraising events.
‘I met him about eight or ten times. Our dealings with him would have been through the Wexford service. He would have come down to the car show four out of the five years,’ said Brid.
‘We would have presented the money to the Wexford service and it was then lodged in a national Console account. From what I understand, the money is sent back to the region in which it was raised.’
Brid said she first heard about the Kelly family’s salaries and expenses on the Liveline programme on RTÉ radio and until that moment she never had a suspicion about the organisations’s finances.
‘My understanding is that most people involved heard it on the radio for the first time. We had absolutely no suspicion. If we had we wouldn’t have been doing a fundraiser for anything that’s not above board. We’re devastated,’ said Brid.
‘I had no reason to think anything other than that
we were giving money to help provide a service. It seems to be the big money, the HSE money that’s involved. It seems to be a governance issue,’ she said.
‘If anybody doubts the legitimacy of Console in Wexford, they should just knock on the door in Francis Street and see what is being provided. I have no doubts about the service that is being provided in Wexford. I know first hand that it is nothing but totally professional.’
‘ The Console centres rely on fundraising and it’s terrible to think that the good work they are doing could be affected by the actions of a few people at the top.’
‘I can honestly say that we’ve had phone calls from people all over the country asking if we’re all right because they know why we’re doing this. It’s very personal to us. It’s what keeps us going.’
‘Both myself and my husband have had people coming to our house looking for urgent help for someone and we’ve always been able to get it for them. All we had to do was make one phone call to Denis O’Connor.’
Pat and Brid held the first Gerard Murphy memorial car show in October 2011, ten months after their son’s death.
‘It was meant to be a small event as a way of saying thank you to Console but it got such support from people all over the country that we decided to continue it. We couldn’t believe the number of people who had been affected by suicide.’
‘I feel so cheated but at the same time I can see the goodness of the centres. I have to think some place at the bottom of my heart that when Paul Kelly started out, he was doing it for all the right reasons and that something went wrong somewhere along the way,’ said Brid.
According to the Console website, the suicide prevention and support organisation was set up by Mr Kelly in 2002 after he experienced the grief of losing a loved one by suicide. It now has centres in Dublin, Cork, Galway, Limerick, Athlone, Wexford, Mayo, Kildare and one in London.The head office is in Celbridge, Co. Kildare.
Tomhaggard woman woman Orla Roche, who helped to raise large sums of money for Console through a Valentine’s Ball and other events when the service was first established, declined to comment on the financial revelations.
‘ To be honest, I haven’t been involved in the last couple of years. I don’t know anything about what is happening. I don’t want to make any comment on it,’ said the former chairperson of the Wexford Friends of Console.
Many local businesses gave goods and services free to renovate the Francis Street building at the time while Eircom installed the helpline system in the centre free of charge.
The Wexford centre is partially funded by the HSE which provides 30% of the running costs with the rest coming from donations and fundraising contributions.
The external examiner has said the practices highlighted in the HSE report are no longer continuing and ‘will never continue again.’
‘ This matter is now under control,’ he said, adding that immediate changes have been made in how post is opened and cheques are lodged.