Liquidator appointed to Co Kildare-based charity Console

The High Court has appointed a provisional liquidator to the suicide bereavement charity Console.

It also emerged this evening that Pieta House is to take over the services of Console on behalf of the HSE.

Lawyers for the HSE told the High Court that an agreement had been executed between Pieta House and the HSE this afternoon.

The move comes three weeks after an RTÉ Investigations Unit programme exposed serious financial irregularities at the charity run by ex CEO Paul Kelly. His wife Patricia was a director.

Mr Justice Paul Gilligan earlier appointed a provisional liquidator to Console after hearing it was "hopelessly insolvent" with debts totalling €294,000 and would be unable to meet its obligations.

In a sworn statement by interim CEO David Hall, the court was told the charity had been loss making for several years, despite its accounts showing otherwise.

He said it would require €105,000 a month to continue.

It currently receives €53,000 a month from the HSE.

Due to the recent scandal it was expected that grants and donations would "reduce to a trickle". As a result, the charity cannot meet its current contractual obligations and its services cannot continue, the court was told.

The court heard the charity will not be in a position to pay its wages at the end of July and has arrears of wages of €77,500. Revenue is owed €74,000 and €90,000 is owed to suppliers.

The judge noted that the charity assists around 6,000 people a year and 314 are currently receiving one-to-one counselling.

He also noted there are 29 calls a day to the helpline and Console has 12 full-time employees and 60 contracted counsellors.

Lawyers for the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement also told the court they would be looking for access to Console's records for a criminal investigation.