Console. Charity, Irish-style

porsche boy

Has he been found yet? Him and the missus have been 'missing' for a couple of days now...

Maireadio

This is a suicide prevention charity. Think of how that money could have been used. This individual's greed has likely directly cost lives. :mad::mad::mad:

222233

Maireadio wrote: »

This is a suicide prevention charity. Think of how that money could have been used. This individual's greed has likely directly cost lives. :mad::mad::mad:

Imagine if it had been invested into CAHMS or into the Adult HSE services as I say that would have hired a very significant amount of professionals.

Maireadio

Sapphire wrote: »

He then stated he didn't resign after all. But you are right. A resignation and a transfer to the board of another cushy number is the standard punishment I believe.

It's sickening that someone can do something like this and not be completely ostracised in their field afterwards.

A more lowly employee anywhere would be fired and would find it very hard to get another job if it was on their record that they stole money. Sorry, misappropriated funds. :rolleyes:

vicwatson

The Catholic Church in Ireland has charity status. Pays no fees to county councils for services when planning applications are made - one if the benefits of charitable status, yet Joe bloggs pays over hundreds if not thousands when they want to build a gaf

vicwatson

porsche boy wrote: »

Has he been found yet? Him and the missus have been 'missing' for a couple of days now...

Probably in Westminister London

Maireadio

Ciaran_B wrote: »

Anyone giving to charity ,after the revelations last summer about the wages they pay themselves, is a sucker. 200+ suicide prevention charities in Ireland alone - absolute joke.

Of course the state is writing this shower their biggest cheque.

I've always thought there is way too much overlapping of charities when there should just be a handful for each issue/illness/whatever.

So many people set up a charity after a loved one dies of a disease or after experiencing a tragedy, as a way of honouring that person. Do they ever stop and consider whether there is a need for the charity they wish to found?

Son Of A Vidic

porsche boy wrote: »

Has he been found yet? Him and the missus have been 'missing' for a couple of days now...

I'm hoping the scumbags took a wrong turn and ended up here.

lawlolawl

222233 wrote: »

Forgetting Console for a minute why are we not asking the same questions about every charity because a lot of things just don't make sense..

Can someone explain to me why most of Ireland's "charities"" chairs etc drive new company cars..it's a "voluntary" organisation but we forgot to mention 7 of our paid staff drive BMWs everyone who isn't paid dedicates their life to actually doing the volunteering....

I never support large charities as I feel they pay far too much in wages for me personally the type I see doing the most work are generally run by people who are not doing it because they need to make a living but because they have made a living and now want a past time - retired etc.

These are businesses, designed to make money.

It bothers me a lot that this is the case because I was planning to leave pretty much everything in my will to charities for animals /animal welfare but once you do a bit of research into the charity sector in general you see that your money will more than likely be misused.

Wouldn't give any of them a thing other than my time now.

Mary63

The Government cut guidance counsellors and staff in schools and with the other hand gave this cowboy outfit millions of our money.

To reach teenagers you have to have the services where they spend most of their time and thats at school.The Guidance Counsellors in most schools would have taken on a pastoral role too and they are best placed to help young people,they were taken out of this role and sent back into teaching while Paul and missus flew around the world.

Paul kelly was guest speaker at some of these ridiculous conferences and neither he nor his fellow travellers would have paid their way.What more can we say about suicide that hasnt been said already so why fly halfway around the world to listen to the likes of Paul Kelly.He managed to bamboozle everyone because no one expects people to behave like him,he pulled the wool over the eyes of these mental health professionals too,it doesnt say much for their expertise as they couldnt see through his waffling.

brooke 2

Maireadio wrote: »

It's sickening that someone can do something like this and not be completely ostracised in their field afterwards.

A more lowly employee anywhere would be fired and would find it very hard to get another job if it was on their record that they stole money. Sorry, misappropriated funds. :rolleyes:

I cannot believe how Paul Kelly got away with this, considering he had
already been outed as a fraudster by RTÉ IN 1990. Máiréad McGuinness
and Marian Finucane did a programme on his 'activities' at the time. I don't
think he was ever jailed but he did run off to Australia. Considering Kelly had
such a high profile as CEO of Console, I find it incomprehensible that those
who knew well of his former life did not remind the authorities that this was
an individual who should not be allowed in charge of a fundraising organisation.
It's not as if he had defrauded people in another country, for heaven's sake!! :mad:
On second thoughts, considering nothing was done when James Reilly and a senior
official in the Department of Health WERE informed, it is possible someone else could
have blown the whistle on Kelly but was ignored. :mad:

Mary63

We can sing as regards getting anything back,he might return the Person of the year award but that will be it.

Not one single thing will be done and in another few months another charity will be exposed.

All we can do now is just stop handing over our money to anyone except the smaller run charities which dont have huge admin costs.

Mairead McGuinness didnt connect Paul Kelly of console with the fraudster she had helped to expose,its not an unusual name and she probably never would have suspected he would return to the scene of the crime and have the absolute nerve to misappropriate money again.She watched Primetime and it took a while for her to cop that this man who she thought was in Australia was heading up Console.

I looked at the Console website a couple of nights ago and it was inviting people to email paul@console.ie,wouldnt you think all trace of him would have been removed.This was after he managed to get into the Office and remove the payroll and shred records.

I cant wait to see the film about this,all proceeds to go to suicide prevention,it will be even better than Catch me if you can.

SterlingArcher

Wasn't He caught pretending to be a doctor. Then was allowed head this charity that he then ripped off. Shock....

Like Wyclef He'll be gone till November he'll be gone till novembaaa. Then back to his old tricks.

Mary63

He pretended to be a doctor twice in two different hospitals.

He was interviewed for the first job over the phone and told to turn up for work on Monday,he stole someone elses medical record number and pretended he had graduated from Trinity.

We have had an awful lot of medical negligence cases in the last few years and lots involving non national doctors,Im beginning to wonder now are some of the doctors employed rogues too.

lawlolawl

Mary63 wrote: »

He pretended to be a doctor twice in two different hospitals.

He was interviewed for the first job over the phone and told to turn up for work on Monday,he stole someone elses medical record number and pretended he had graduated from Trinity.

We have had an awful lot of medical negligence cases in the last few years and lots involving non national doctors,Im beginning to wonder now are some of the doctors employed rogues too.

Wonder how many of them will get People of The Year awards too?

Help!!!!

He also dressed as a pilot & walked around Dublin trying to pick up women

Mary63

Who organises people of the year awards and more importantly who funds this.

Surely someone like Paul Kelly with his cars provided,his phone bills paid for,his foreign trips funded,his salary of 91,000 euros is award enough for the job he does.Why should he be nominated for person of the year award,who nominated him and on what grounds.

it cant be for his successful fundraising because the Console staff were happy enough not to be paid on time because somehow or other they thought this was due to cashflow problems,how they could swallow this when Twitter was full of twits blowing about the takings from the non stop fundraising.

So can the people who organise the people of the year gig explain why Paul Kelly was chosen.

Maireadio

lawlolawl wrote: »

These are businesses, designed to make money.

It bothers me a lot that this is the case because I was planning to leave pretty much everything in my will to charities for animals /animal welfare but once you do a bit of research into the charity sector in general you see that your money will more than likely be misused.

Wouldn't give any of them a thing other than my time now.

I volunteered for a small animal charity, one of the small county SPCAs in the country.

Every year, they get a grant of €7000 from the government and make about the same in monetary donations. They also receive a fair bit of non-monetary donations (food, bedding, toys etc.). Literally nearly every penny they receive goes toward caring for the animals and maintaining the kennels and cattery to an acceptable standard with a small amount going towards administration. The founders of the charity are unpaidand they work damn hard. Not all charities are greedy and are worthy of donations.

lawlolawl

Mary63 wrote: »

Who organises people of the year awards and more importantly who funds this.

Surely someone like Paul Kelly with his cars provided,his phone bills paid for,his foreign trips funded,his salary of 91,000 euros is award enough for the job he does.Why should he be nominated for person of the year award,who nominated him and on what grounds.

it cant be for his successful fundraising because the Console staff were happy enough not to be paid on time because somehow or other they thought this was due to cashflow problems,how they could swallow this when Twitter was full of twits blowing about the takings from the non stop fundraising.

So can the people who organise the people of the year gig explain why Paul Kelly was chosen.

"Suicide is a hot topic. Who's the head of the biggest suicide charity?"

Mary63

It still doesnt explain why he should deserve a person of the year award.

I dont know why he should deserve this,its not as if all the money fundraised or all the public money donated has actually made a shred of difference,how could a CEO of a charity deserve special praise when the helplines to the charity have been cut,the staff arent even being paid the miserable wage due and even the landlord cant get rent due.The charity hasnt a single asset even though its in existence for years and lo and behold its offices are situated in a house owned by wait for it,the CEO.I wonder what rent the Kellys were getting for the office premises,surely this is all very unethical.

Were the organisers scraping the bottom of the barrel and surely in this case it would be better to say we havent anyone of substance to give the award to so we will just not give it to anyone.

eviltwin

Mary63 wrote: »

It still doesnt explain why he should deserve a person of the year award.

I dont know why he should deserve this,its not as if all the money fundraised or all the public money donated has actually made a shred of difference,how could a CEO of a charity deserve special praise when the helplines to the charity have been cut,the staff arent even being paid the miserable wage due and even the landlord cant get rent due.The charity hasnt a single asset even though its in existence for years and lo and behold its offices are situated in a house owned by wait for it,the CEO.I wonder what rent the Kellys were getting for the office premises,surely this is all very unethical.

The general public vote for the nominees. I reckon a lot of people were impressed by Kelly in the midst of his own family tragedy, trying to help others yada yada yada. Little did they realise.

222233

Maireadio wrote: »

I volunteered for a small animal charity, one of the small county SPCAs in the country.

Every year, they get a grant of €7000 from the government and make about the same in monetary donations. They also receive a fair bit of non-monetary donations (food, bedding, toys etc.). Literally nearly every penny they receive goes toward caring for the animals and maintaining the kennels and cattery to an acceptable standard with a small amount going towards administration. The founders of the charity are unpaidand they work damn hard. Not all charities are greedy and are worthy of donations.

I volunteered with a charity similar to the one you describe, not taking in a lot of money and small. From where I stood it seemed legit, turns out it wasn't - I concluded from that experience years ago that the only people who know what goes on with a charities money are the people with access to it...

Mary63

He wasnt in the midst of his own family tragedy though,his sister died years ago.Seemingly she was dead for seven years by the time Paul Kelly arrived back from his Australian exile and it appears he saw the opportunity then to get paid for talking about suicide.To be honest there are an awful lot of people paid to ponder about suicide and I think thats the reason Kelly got away with this for so long.It would have been seen to be beyond the pale to question anything to do with suicide funding because its such an emotive topic.

maryishere

222233 wrote: »

I volunteered with a charity similar to the one you describe, not taking in a lot of money and small. From where I stood it seemed legit, turns out it wasn't - I concluded from that experience years ago that the only people who know what goes on with a charities money are the people with access to it...

Precisely. I know only two peope who work for charities. One earns well over €100,000 per year from the charity. The other works in a small charity but has a really good lifestyle, lots of designer clothes, holidays etc. There are far too many charities in Ireland and it is impossible to regulate them all.

eviltwin

Mary63 wrote: »

He wasnt in the midst of his own family tragedy though,his sister died years ago.Seemingly she was dead for seven years by the time Paul Kelly arrived back from his Australian exile and it appears he saw the opportunity then to get paid for talking about suicide.To be honest there are an awful lot of people paid to ponder about suicide and I think thats the reason Kelly got away with this for so long.It would have been seen to be beyond the pale to question anything to do with suicide funding because its such an emotive topic.

But that was his USP. He was someone who'd been there, saw what was needed and filled a gap. It was personal. I can understand people trusting him. You'd think a man who had lost a family member to suicide himself would have a different perspective than the average CEO. Console also provided a service the hse wasn't so it was in their interests to keep it going.

Mary63

The people working in the charity shop gets first dibs on anything decent so your woman is probably wearing designer gear that has been donated.

What does USP mean.

I cant understand how the therapists he employed trusted him,how many were there,he couldnt even pay them on time.They saw his nice clothes,the nice cars he and his wife were driving,the pair must have been permanently tanned,surely if you had half a brain you would question how come your miserable wages couldnt be paid on time.

222233

maryishere wrote: »

Precisely. I know only two peope who work for charities. One earns well over €100,000 per year from the charity. The other works in a small charity but has a really good lifestyle, lots of designer clothes, holidays etc. There are far too many charities in Ireland and it is impossible to regulate them all.

Exactly !

It would make more sense to group charities i.e have one animal charity and have a branch in each area, let the size of the branch depend on the county instead of having fragments of tiny charities everywhere all doing the same work, bring those people together.

chicorytip

Mary63 wrote: »

Who organises people of the year awards and more importantly who funds this.

Surely someone like Paul Kelly with his cars provided,his phone bills paid for,his foreign trips funded,his salary of 91,000 euros is award enough for the job he does.Why should he be nominated for person of the year award,who nominated him and on what grounds.

it cant be for his successful fundraising because the Console staff were happy enough not to be paid on time because somehow or other they thought this was due to cashflow problems,how they could swallow this when Twitter was full of twits blowing about the takings from the non stop fundraising.

So can the people who organise the people of the year gig explain why Paul Kelly was chosen.

His motivation for setting up Console appears to have been genuine - his younger sister took her own life. The level and quality of support provided by the highly competent and dedicated counselling staff appears, by all accounts, to have been excellent. It is safe to assume, therefore, that there are many people who would not be alive today were it not for the help of Console and other similar organisations. This should not be lost sight of. Kelly's betrayal of his organisations supporters, staff and clientele is profound and unforgivable but pales into insignificance when contrasted with the sustained and systematic fraudulent criminality perpetrated by certain members of our banking fraternity over the past decade.

SterlingArcher

maryishere wrote: »

Precisely. I know only two peope who work for charities. One earns well over €100,000 per year from the charity. The other works in a small charity but has a really good lifestyle, lots of designer clothes, holidays etc. There are far too many charities in Ireland and it is impossible to regulate them all.

Same. Unfortunately most times it's better to spend that money on someone you know. And make them happier. Than helping buy another expensive bottle of wine for some "charities" dinner night out in a foreign country . The reality of it is charity is just a word and people are sometimes just too selfish for words.

Mary63

There is nothing genuine about this man from start to finish,his first charity which was disbanded failed because his staff refused to allow sharp practices to continue.They are the genuine people who deserve person of the year awards.I dont know what the motivation for setting up the first charity was and nor can I understand why someone would pretend to be ordained or why they would pretend to be a doctor.

If I was asked to nominate anyone I would nominate the Garda whistleblowers.

Saying what Paul Kelly did is insignificant is just wrong,he has undermined the whole charity sector in this country and everyone who now works for charities will be viewed with deep suspicion.

There would be a lot more people alive if Console didnt exist.The HSE transferred huge sums of taxpayers money to Paul Kellys slush fund,this money could have been used to employ fully qualified personnel around the country,it could ave been used to provide twenty four hour helplines,it could have been used to provide in patient beds,the list is endless.