Liquidator confirmed for charity Console by High Court

The High Court has confirmed the appointment of a liquidator to the suicide counselling charity Console.

Mr Justice Paul Gilligan confirmed Tom Murray, who was last week appointed provisional liquidator, to officially wind up the company which ran the charity, Console Suicide Bereavement Counselling Ltd.

He also ordered its directors and former directors to file statements of affairs by September 21st to the liquidator.

Those registered as directors are: Ursula Mulkerrins, Bowling Green, Galway, Gerard Tiernan, Bloomfield Drive, Athlone, Co Westmeath, and Angela McGovern, Smithstown, Maynooth, Co Kildare. The two others who recently resigned are Console founder Paul Kelly's wife Patricia and his sister Joan Burke-McKenna.

The judge said, while the normal time for filing a statement of affairs was 21 days, in the circumstances of this case he was extending that deadline. This was due to the fact that the charity’s books and records were currently being catalogued and scanned by the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement (ODCE), a process which was taking some time.

The judge said he expected copies of those records to be made available to the liquidator by the ODCE within 14 days and he hoped extra resources would be applied to do so given the urgency of the matter.

Once that is done, the liquidator can provide the directors and ex-directors with the information they require to prepare their statements of means, the judge said.

Stephen Brady BL, for the liquidator, said it had not been possible for his client to “get to the bottom” of exactly who are the directors of Console due to the fact the documents are still with the ODCE. This was not a criticism of the ODCE but a matter of practicality in that scanning and cataloguing took time, he said.

Mr Brady also said the liquidator had met with Mr and Mrs Kelly on Wednesday but it was not possible to address all issues without the books and records. “All I can say is the investigations are ongoing”, he said.

The court also heard there had been a happy transition of Console’s services to Pieta House following the last court hearing. Discussions are well advanced between Pieta and the HSE about putting in place a longer term agreement.

James McGuill, solicitor for the Kellys, said his application to give his clients access to a frozen account containing €6,700, which Console says belongs to it, could not be dealt with until the books and records were available.

The court heard sufficient payroll records had been made available by the ODCE to allow for creation of a P45 document for Mr Kelly for social welfare purposes.

The case was adjourned to October 13th.