Pieta House is to take over services formerly provided by Console, it has been confirmed.

Console has been buried deep in controversy in recent weeks after it emerged that its founder, Paul Kelly, along with some of his family members, had been using the well-known charity's money to fund a lavish lifestyle.

Mr Kelly, his wife Patricia and their son Tim benefitted to the tune of almost €500,000 in salaries and cars between 2012 and 2014.

A further €500,000 was also spent on Console credit cards to pay for a range of things, including holidays and designer clothes. Mr Kelly and his family members also made cash withdrawals of over €87,000 using these cards between 2012 and 2014. There were no documents to explain how this money was spent.

However, in a sworn statement to the High Court, Console's interim CEO, David Hall, explained that the charity had been making a loss for a number of years, despite its accounts showing otherwise.

He explained that it would need €105,000 per month to continue providing its services, which include a 24-hour helpline. However, it receives €53,000 per month from the HSE and the charity cannot realistically now rely on donations and fundraising given the scandal it is embroiled in.

The HSE is not willing provide the charity with €105,000 per month and as a result, it cannot meet its contractual obligations and services cannot continue, Mr Hall said.

He filed a petition for a liquidator and it has been confirmed that Pieta House will take over three of the services provided by the charity - the helpline, the Suicide Bereavement Liaison Service and the Suicide Bereavement Counselling Service.

The HSE's national director for mental health, Anne O'Connor, emphasised the importance of these three services and thanked Pieta House for agreeing to ‘commence them so promptly'.

She also thanked Mr Hall for his work in recent weeks, as well as the staff of Console who have continued to provide services ‘during a period that must have been very distressing for them personally'.

Mr Hall said he was ‘delighted' that Pieta House has agreed to take over the services. Meanwhile, Pieta House's CEO, Brian Higgins, insisted that it will ‘do everything possible to ensure that current users of the bereavement service will receive the same high quality support from it going forward'.

"For us, it is also crucial to assure our existing clients, supporters and staff that there will be no impact on the counselling services that we currently offer to people in suicidal crisis and people who self-harm," he noted.

Speaking in the High Court on Thursday, lawyers for the HSE said that the transition of services would be ‘all but seamless'. Pieta House is expected to meet with employees of Console in the coming days to discuss their positions, but it is hoped they can be given contracts with Pieta House.

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