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PARENTS OF SPECIAL needs children at a St John of God school are demanding the charity reveal the names and salaries of all executives who received top-up payments.
It emerged last week that the charity paid a total of €1.64 million in top-ups to 14 executives in 2013. St John of God has said the payments were made on the advice of consultants, to discharge a pension risk. It also said the money was from the order’s own resources.
Today parents of children at St Raphael’s school in Celbridge, county Kildare said they are “furious” about the payments and want the charity to give details about who got the money.
Aisling McNiffe, whose 11-year-old son attends the St John of God-run school, said she was disgusted to hear about the payments being made, “while my son and many other children and adults who attend the school and services in St. Raphael’s suffer cuts”.
Should these excess funds not have been used to ensure services improve or at least continue?”
“The sense of betrayal we now feel is intense as we learn that some of the senior executives who imparted information about rationalisation and cutbacks to us, were at the same time receiving secret top-ups to their salaries,” said Philip and Chris Hannon, parents of another child at the school, in a statement.
Michael and Lorna Collins, parents of a 10-year-old boy who attends St Raphael’s said:
Adult services have been cut, day services, respite, a bus service, maple room canteen, snatched away from the most vulnerable, mostly non-verbal clients. Disgraceful.
The parents at the Kildare school are asking that more clarity be provided about who the money went to. The HSE is now conducting an audit of the charity’s finances and the Dáil Public Accounts Committee is expected to call representatives of the charity to a hearing.
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Country can’t get any lower.
Oh but it can! A certain non dom is shortly in line to get handed part of the internet infrastructure of the state for funding certain organisations and cronies. Something to look forward to in a banana republic.
It’s always been like that at the room…now that we are getting more transparency, maybe things will change but i won’t hold my breath.
Are there any legitimate charities left in this country?
One has to assume none and start from there. All charities need to be audited thoroughly, if they are clean they have no fear to be be audited. But then the big question is why is Ireland so dependent on charities to provide essential services, a lot of those services being headed up by cronies of political parties, how do Irish people accept this and then moan and groan when these people are found out and these people face no consequences for the harm and hurt that they have caused, just walk away into the sun with exaggerated pensions when they should be in prison. Paul Kelly self installed in a mental home (didn’t have to wait on a trolley) nothing mentally wrong with him just another charade.
But Irish people continue to vote for FG or FF (only the name on the can changes.) and both of them will use to system to award juicy contracts to their buddies.
Ireland is a very sick country run by an elite who have no concern nor interest in any body that fall into their secular closed group of friends (ass lickers)
Who is this “consultant” that advised them to pay the top-ups and how much was spent on the consultant/s?
These Executives have no morals and should resign, the consultant s should be named & shamed. ♿️ charities have been taken over by professional con men in this country
Only the tip of the iceberg. What’s all these charities top shots got. The same circle of friends.
Precisely.The golden circle put them there and the golden circle looks after them…..but the golden circle has a price…..
Can we name the former Taoisigh and Ministers involved with Console over the years on here or would that mean journalists would be embarrassed into researching and publishing the answers? Who benefited and how? Money? Taxpayer Funding? Whiparounds?
The standard of “Journalism” in this country is embarrassing when it comes to asking hard questions. So much potential for journalists to investigate potentially huge stories all over the country and the cowards would rather copy and paste articles from Reuters and Reddit and the likes.
There’s very little that’s charitable about St John of God’s services for the intellectually disabled. The residents have to pay rent and utilities out of their disability allowance. Over the last few years it’s covered under a tenancy agreement, prior to that, my mother handed over most of my sisters allowance and for years never got as much as a statement or receipt.
They also pay for day trips and concerts etc. Even though a staff member accompanying them is technically on duty, the client can be expected to pay for not only their ticket but the staff members, same goes for the cinema, restaurants , taxis. I do know staff who refuse to do this, but there are plenty who do. If the client is profoundly disabled as my sister is, then obviously there not choosing the venues or activities, but they still pay.
On one occasion my sister had to ‘buy’ her own bed , when I queried that I was told it was really about the concept of ‘ownership’. When I explained that the concept of ownership for my sister would be a plastic toy suitable for 0-18 months, it was eventually refunded back.
I’m quite sure I couldn’t be the only family member who knowing how the services are being run, are wondering how these people are worth their salaries, let alone the pensions! I’ve said it before ,management at SJOG should be ashamed of themselves, regardless of whether they’re brothers of the order or lay staff. Shame on them.
Well said Joanne…and very brave..i trust that is a nom de guerre…
Joanne – none of this surprises me one bit. There is no money on the ground in these multi million euro businesses. And now we know why. It’s being distributed at the top.
One guy got €600,000 alone…
The St John of God charity has made an undisclosed payment of more than €600,000 to its most senior lay executive to discharge pension and employment liabilities.
The size of the largest payment to group chief executive John Pepper is far greater than previously thought.
And how many people kept schtum about this? They dont break ranks or allow their inferiors to speak out of turn….
This is their private ‘LOTTO’ No spin the wheel……EVERYONE is a winner €€€€…..
A lot more charitable corruption to be exposed yet….many people know or suspect corruption in their charity employer or the charity they depend on for assistance or a service but they know they will pay a fearsome price for reporting their suspicions.
So thats suicide and special needs stolen from within the top three news stories today.Any other of the most vulnerable these absolute creeps would like to fleece next? Maybe some blind people??Remove their guide dogs for racing at the dog track perhaps to make a few quid.More will come of this after there audit no doubt.They genuinley have no shame.
So it’s spreading from the charity sector to the medical profession. Is there any one left in the caring profession who actually cares about anyone other than themselves.
No.
The great charity scam has been ongoing since the foundation of the state beninifitting the great and the good. It’s a litany of infamy. Try Google readers digests article banned in Ireland “the biggest bleeding heart in the world” for a glimpse of the Iceberg tip.
I saw in all of the other reports the monies came from rental income and ‘donations’. Probably ‘mandatory donations’ [what a misnomer] like these parents had to pay.
Have these ‘consultants’ no shame?
I have donated to St John of God monthly via a standing order since 1986. I have just cancelled this.
I will not donate to them or any other Irish charity organisation until they are completely transparent.
I’ve been donating to them for over 20 years, by standing order. Won’t be standing much longer.
Frankly the charitable and voluntary sector in Ireland is organised, and run, as an industry, not a ‘not for profit’ sector, why, because they’re permitted to, we failed to regulate bank’s and look how that ended, we fail to regulate politicians, look how that turns out, we need, now, regulate this sector as otherwise more public funds will be wasted making wealthy persons even more wealthy, while, at the same time, their clients, and staff, shall be left with substantially less.
It’s don’t take a maths genius to figure out if a “charity” has X income and has Y paid staff how much it spend on “administration” and I don’t eat paper clips!!!
How many of the people working nowadays for St. John of God’s institutions are actually Brothers of the Order that set up these institutions? And how many workers in the institutions are lay people? And how many lay part time workers in these institutions are volunteers? Statistics might help us to know how strong is the original charitable vision that motivated the Brothers to establish the institutions.
I feel sick and i’m in tears, I have a brother who is resident at St Rapheal Celbrigde, and the cut back that have gone on have been extreme down to cutting out desserts after their dinner. The Staff on the gound are the best people you could come across doing thing out of there own pockets and time. For these so called poeple to do this is just unforgiveable and how they can sleep at night god only knows. At the moment my brother is in hospital and we have been told a few times that there are no funds for extra staff to help him, their doctor services have been cut from every day too two day a week for 2 hours each of those days, the services user ARE POEPLE WITH REAL FEELINGS just like you and me, but some cannot but those feels in to words.
SHAME ON YOU ALL GREED GREED GREED.
My fear is now that is the good poeple who have donated over the years will stop, but the only ones that will suffer are the ones with no voice and no family, I just feel so sad.
@Patricia I’m so sorry to hear that . I feel everything you say as i have been and am going through this for going on 9 and half years . I wish i could get just 10 minutes with these SXUM PIGS and let them see how we live and every night THEY lay their SCMM head to rest me and you and all the rest toss and turn and worry and wonder . Keep strong Patricia your not alone x
Patricia I understand exactly how you feel. I hope your brother is better soon. Last year we spent six weeks in hospital, sitting beside my sister, from early in the morning until night. We didn’t know SJOG don’t provide care once their residents are actually admitted. Even those without families, they’re left to the care of the hospital. There was no way my sister could be left on her own. We thought that was bad, but were left stunned when after six hours of brain surgery, and a request from the high dependency ward for a SJOG staff member to sit with her through that first night in case she became distressed, SJOG refused. Why? They said there was no funding for that.
Well, now we know where managements priorities, compassion, care and charity lie.
Must admit all this news about charities and the true benefactors of money collected means I will be way less inclined to donate any money to any charity which is a really sad state of affairs.
These people have no shame….greedy b******s!!! Livid at this country and how all these selfish gits look after themselves government ministers and Taoiseach included. Top up their salaries when they need no more. Sickening
It’s not just charities, at the top end it seems you can’t earn enough
And for all the red thumb diks i write this as my child stares at me vacantly . Yet we’re assured their future is safe with these dirt at the helm . 600,000 grand FFS
They are not special needs kids. They are children with special needs. There is a difference.
@Orla spot on . As a parent of a child with special needs to say my blood is boiling is understatement . How many times are WE the IRISH PEOPLE just gonna roll over onto one side and keep taking it up the you know what . My beautiful Country that i love is a haven for these thieving s-cumpot slime balls .
A charity called “St. John of god”
Wouldn’t expect anything less than corrupt behavior ..
The greed culture is endemic in the top brass of this country,
The TD’s and the government do not lead by example but expect the rest of us to ‘make do’ and pay more taxes.
#eastmer but it’s ok we’re IRISH .
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