Anti-Adi Roche campaigners last night stood over their claims that she had mistreated Chernobyl Children's Project staff. They are also checking the legal position concerning release of a tape which they say would substantiate one of their claims.
According to a member of the group, A Concerned Group Not Supporting Adi Roche, the tape confirms its allegation that Ms Roche regarded FAS workers as second-class employees within the organisation.
"Most of the tape is quite harmless but at one point she outlines the work duties of a person on a FAS scheme where she says to give that person a particular job because it doesn't take an Einstein to do it," said an informed source.
According to the source, the person in question is not the FAS worker referred to in a memo leaked at the weekend where Ms Roche again allegedly proposed that certain work be given to that FAS worker because "it's not exactly a job for a brain surgeon".
It is understood that the group is also clearing a statement with its legal advisers for release either today or tomorrow which will allegedly confirm its allegations of mistreatment.
The promise to substantiate the allegations came amid considerable confusion in the Concerned Group Not Supporting Adi Roche, with several members saying they believed the statement could undermine Ms Roche's candidacy.
But sources in the group were unsure as to what exactly the statement will contain, prompting some observers to question whether it will prove damaging to Ms Roche - if it is released at all.
Meanwhile Ms Roche yesterday replied to her critics, saying she was not going to be bullied out of the presidential race and that she will be campaigning to win when she lodges her nomination paper on Friday.
"I accept the right of others to express their views: but equally I reserve the right to vigorously defend myself. The timing of these allegations is puzzling - I wonder why the media wasn't told of them prior to my nomination for Presidency," she said.
Ms Roche said she made no apologies for decisions she had to make as an executive director of the Chernobyl Children's Project (CCP) particularly when the organisation was being restructured into a registered charity.
"Sometimes people like you, sometimes they don't. Sometimes people work out, sometimes they don't. There have been times when I had to make tough decisions," said Ms Roche, writing in the Evening Echo in Cork.
"At the end of the day, the losers from this will not be Adi Roche or the project. They will be the people waiting for the next aid convoy due to be sent out to Belarus later this year. "Most people who have worked with me and know me describe me as a fair-minded person. I am motivated by my love of children but there is a part of me too that's well able to run a business and get a job done."
Earlier, a former Chernobyl Children's Project worker, Mr Denis Murphy, reiterated his criticism of Ms Roche. She had treated people with very little respect and had interfered with his efforts to bring children to Ireland, he said.
"As local fundraisers, we were the backbone of the Chernobyl Children's Project but with Adi, it was `I, I, I'. If she came up with an idea, she'd go ahead with it, no matter what the committee thought," said Mr Murphy.
When Mr Murphy broke from the CCP to bring children from the Chernobyl area to Ireland independently, he received no support from the CCP.
"Adi Roche and the CCP didn't want anyone setting up a rival organisation," he claimed.
Mr Murphy admitted that Ms Roche had done some good work but said she had gone on a power trip. "We don't take away from the good work she's done - none of us would know about the Chernobyl children but for her, but power went to her head."
