In a 2011 email, the HSE noted Console had “strong governance structures.” The email came 2 years after the HSE had investigated the suicide charity and found its accounts were inaccurate and that some people were incorrectly listed as directors of the board. The charity has been rocked in recent weeks after the RTÉ Investigations Unit revealed questionable payments to and extravagant spending by founder Paul Kelly, his wife Patricia and their son Tim.
The November 30, 2011, email which was released to the RTÉ Investigations Unit under Freedom of Information legislation, was written by a Senior Executive Officer (SEO) at the HSE’s National Office of Suicide Prevention (NOSP) to Paul Kelly. In the email regarding HSE funding of a Console online counselling service the SEO wrote, “Console has established strong governance structures.”
At the time the email was written the Console Board was composed of three members of the Kelly family, in contradiction of Revenue Commissioner rules stipulating that charity board members be independent and unrelated. The charity had also been deceiving funders by submitted doctored accounts in funding applications, which masked that Paul Kelly was being paid as a director in contravention of regulations.
The HSE email praising Console’s governance was also sent around the same time that the Department of Health questioned Paul Kelly about his conviction in 1983, for impersonating a hospital doctor, for which he received probation. The Department of Health told RTÉ’s This Week programme that an official spoke to Mr Kelly about the offence at an unspecified date in late 2011.
Other documents released under FOI suggest that the HSE kept the Department of Health in the dark about its concerns about how the charity was run.
In a memo to Geoff Day, the director of the HSE’s National Office of Suicide Prevention, dated February 1st, 2009 a senior NOSP official (a different official to the one who had praised the charity’s corporate governance) highlighted several important deficiencies in Console’s governance and accounting. For example, the official wrote that “The expenditure account” in the 2004 audited accounts “does not add up correctly.” The memo also stated, “The 2006 Audited Accounts show incorrect membership of the Board” and that the 2006 and 2007 Audited Accounts were “not signed off by the Chairman of the Board of Console.” The official also wrote that the 2006 and 2007 accounts include “a number of line items that required explanation” such as “Professional fees of circa €145,000 over the two years.”
The official recommended that “the Department of Health and Children be informed of concerns about Console.”
This apparently did not happen and 12 days after receiving the assessment from his official, Geoff Day wrote to the Department of Health in support of an ultimately successful Console funding application for €100,000.
Mr Day told the Investigations Unit on Monday that at the time he had no suspicion that problems were on a large scale. "There were some governance issues [at Console] but you have that with every organisation. I didn't have any reason to think that those governance concerns were different to anyone else." He also noted that he left his job in 2011, long before more serious concerns became public in relation to the running of the charity.
The following month the HSE threatened to suspend its funding of the charity over concerns about whether it had a functioning board. This followed a meeting between Geoff Day and Paul Kelly at which governance concerns were discussed and flagged to Paul Kelly. The HSE stated that future funding would be conditional on the provision of minutes from a Console board meeting and evidence of lodgements to a Console account to show the charity could sustain itself. HSE documents supplied to the Investigations Unit under FOI did not include those minutes. Recent revelations have shown that Console never had a functioning board as the charity was dominated since its establishment by founder Paul Kelly.
In early 2010, a year after the critique of Console by his Department official, NOSP Director Geoff Day wrote a briefing note for then health Minister Mary Harney. In the memo dated February 1st 2010, Mr Day stated that “The NOSP held concerns at the beginning of 2009 about the financial position in Console and particularly its cash flow.” But Mr Day did not mention in the briefing note any concerns around governance that the NOSP had about Console.
"I didn't feel it was appropriate to put those in the briefing note to the minister," Mr Day told the RTE Investigations Unit on Monday, adding that "hindsight is a great thing. The only concerns I had about Console were cash flow.”
Service Level Agreements between the HSE and Console emphasise that the recipient of HSE funds is expected to adhere to good procedures. A 2010 Service Level Agreement signed by Geoff Day and Paul Kelly which provided €207,877 to Console, stated “Much of this agreement relates to good governance of the Organisation. Recipients are expected to adhere to good corporate governance practice.” Under the agreement Console filled out a “Governance Self Evaluation Questionnaire” which included 35 questions. Paul Kelly answered “yes” to all of them, including whether Console had a “patient private property policy” and a “medication management policy”, neither of which would apparently be applicable to a counselling charity. He also answered “Yes” to the question: “Does your Agency Organisation manage its financial resources in accordance with Generally Accepted Accountancy Principles, legal requirements and sound financial management practice?” An unpublished audit by the HSE finalised in April raised serious questions about Console’s financial management, including a lack of controls on accounting for donations.
Like the HSE which more than doubled its funding of Console between the years 2012 to 2014, when it reached €782,000, the Department of Health has been very supportive of Console. And like the HSE there appears to have been a lack of scrutiny of funding applications and monitoring of spending
Over the years 2010-2013 Console submitted doctored accounts to government departments including the Department of Health and the HSE. A straightforward comparison with audited accounts submitted to the Companies Registration Office would have revealed several attempts to mislead state funders. This apparently was not done by the Department of Health.
Documents released under FOI from the Department also show that Paul Kelly was reluctant to explain how his charity spent state grants.
In April 2005 Minister Harney’s officials approved a grant of €100,000 from the Department of Health’s National Lottery funding. This money was paid to Console on April 22nd, 2005. A condition of the funding was that a “certificate of expenditure” be submitted as soon as possible. But that didn’t happen. Over a year later, the Department’s finance unit wrote to Paul Kelly seeking the certificate. A handwritten note from an official at the Department’s Finance Unit said Paul Kelly had responded quickly. “Telephone call from Mr Paul Kelly of Console”, the official wrote, “he will send in a certificate of expenditure as soon as possible.” However, by July 2007, over two years after that €100,000 grant was paid, the certification of expenditure still hadn’t arrived. Another official at the Finance Unit wrote to Paul Kelly seeking it. In August 2007, Paul Kelly wrote to the official stating the €100,000 had gone “toward the operational costs for the Console National Suicide Crisis and Counselling Service.” A copy of a page from Console accounts was also included which noted the “€100,000 was received through the Department of Health and Children from the National Lottery.” No details were supplied in the documentation about precisely how the money was spent.
Department of Health funding continued. A letter from Paul Kelly to Minister Mary Harney in January 2006 sought €50,000 to go “towards the cost of establishing a professional counselling support service in the Clondalkin area of Dublin for those bereaved through suicide and those who are suicidal.”
On 24th March 2006, Mary Harney wrote back to say a grant of €50,000 was approved for Console. Again it was a condition of the grant that “certification of expenditure should be submitted to this Department as soon as possible after the end of the financial year or when the project is completed (whichever is earlier).” But again, over two years later in June 2008 a Department official from the Finance Unit had to write to Paul Kelly seeking the “certification of expenditure.” The records supplied under FOI to the RTÉ Investigations Unit do not include any “certification of expenditure” for the €50,000 given in 2006.
In 2007, Minister Harney approved a further €25,000 for Console, it was paid in July. Once again, Paul Kelly was reluctant to give details about how it was spent. Almost three years later, in May 2010 the Department sent a letter to Mr Kelly seeing the certification of expenditure. Again records supplied to the Investigations Unit under FOI did not include any “certification of expenditure” for the €25,000.
In March 2008, Console sought €100,000 from the Department of Health “towards the cost of establishing a Child Psychotherapy Service for young people affected or bereaved through suicide.” The HSE, whose advice the Department of Health had sought on previous occasions and was generally supportive of Console’s applications, raised concerns about giving this grant.
In an email on March 25th Geoff Day, the Director of the National Office of Suicide Prevention, wrote, “ I am not sure a new helpline is required. Surely they could use the existing Console/Childline structures and bring in trained child counsellors.” He also warned that “There are child protection/parental consent issues which need to be carefully considered – there is no evidence of such consideration.” Mr Day also wrote, “There is no evidence of any partnership links with Childline or child bereavement groups like Rainbows. This would be important as they have huge experience in this area.” Despite these concerns Minister Mary Harney wrote to Paul Kelly a fortnight later on April 8th, 2008 to say, “I am pleased to inform you that I have approved a grant of €100,000 from my Department’s 2008 allocation of National Lottery funds.”
The money was paid to Console three days later by bank draft.
In 2009 Minister Harney approved another €100,000 from her department’s National Lottery funding allotment. That money was paid on 27th February 2009. Again, Paul Kelly appeared unwilling to explain how that money was spent. Almost two years later, on January 26th, 2011 an official with the Department’s Finance Unit wrote to Mr Kelly seeking the certification of expenditure for the money. “It is noted that this information has not yet been received from your organisation,” the official wrote. Paul Kelly submitted audited accounts in response.
In September 2011, James Reilly wrote to Paul Kelly with good news of more Department of Health generosity, “I am pleased to inform you that I have approved a grant of €50,000 from my Department’s 2011 allocation of National Lottery funds.”
Console’s accounts show that funding by the Department of Health largely dried up thereafter though other state agencies continued to support it with large grants.
