By Jennifer Hough – Irish Examiner.
Friday, January 08, 2010
THE Health Service Executive must make a statement on the running of a state-funded group for survivors of institutional abuse, according to a Cork TD. (TD = Member of the Irish Parliament)
Sean Sherlock said serious questions surround the structure and governance of Cork-based group Right of Place, which has received millions of euro in government funding since 2002. He said he intends to raise the issue in the Dáil after the Christmas holidays.
Right of Place, one of the country’s largest support groups for survivors of institutional abuse, has been asked by the HSE to clarify the state of its finances.
Mr Sherlock said his concerns stemmed from personal dealings with the group, which provides accommodation for survivors who are seeking repatriation.
In 2008, Mr Sherlock assisted a woman who had been a tenant of the charity, but who was evicted following a dispute, after which she was left homeless.
The woman, in her 60s, tried to reclaim money from Right of Place after she was forced to replaced a heater in her flat on the lower Glanmire Road. She also claimed her privacy was violated by the landlord and made a formal complaint to the Private Residential Tenancies Board claiming illegal eviction and breach of landlord obligations.
“I have dealt with the people who run Right of Place and it was a negative experience,” Mr Sherlock said. “Questions must be asked about the HSE’s level of involvement and how managerial structures were monitored within the group.”
In November, a dispute between the founder of the charity, Noel Barry, and some of the committee, resulted in Mr Barry taking out an injunction against those looking to replace him. Following this, the HSE told the group no further funding would be given until membership proved they can manage public money appropriately.
Right of Place is run by Mr Barry, a victim of abuse at the Rosminian school at Upton, Co Cork. In 2009, the HSE allocated the group €337,500 and the Department of Education gave it €75,331.
Since 2002 it has collected more than €2.2m from the HSE, and the health board previously, and more than €1m from the Department of Education. A further €88,000 was secured in National Lottery funding.
Right of Place has also received unknown amounts from Catholic bishops and religious orders.
Mr Barry has to date refused to comment or answer any questions relating to the running of Right of Place.
How much money in funding has been paid over to SOCA UK? for their group. We should have a right to this information and to know the names of survivors they, and others have on their list. Most survivors don’t wish to belong to any groups to be reminded of the past all the time, we should all be given proper compensation into our own bank accounts, I would love to get enough compensation to buy my own home in Wexford where i was stolen from which I could pass on to my children and grandchildren, + my four great grandchildren, our compensation should not continue to be used to bloat lawyers and so called leaders of survivors groups. While survivors struggle, some even homeless now. Paddy you should run the lot we trust you.
I haven’t put myself forward because I haven’t been asked to represent any group. Even if I was asked, I would have to give the matter serious consideration. I would also have to have a clear cut and unambiguous mandate from people who were institutionalised and abused. I would also be seeking the support of their families and friends as they too are directly affected by the abuse suffered by those close to them.
Thank you for your faith in me Anne. Whoever takes up the ‘baton’ of representation has a challenging and a tough task ahead of them but not an insurmountable one. Paddy.
Barry, are you saying what I think your saying??…is there a loop here?.
Will phone you this week Barry, it’s been hectic with the move.
I’m so angry Paddy, wasted energy but I can’t help it!..What is going on???…
Emer, Saint Patrick’s Day would be such a good idea to march for survivors justice, what a brilliant idea ! I’m all for that. Count me in.
Paddy, why haven’t you ever put your self forward to represent us?..what ever the reason I really do wish you would and perhaps Barry too, that man is like a dog with 10 bones!! haha…
Keep up the good work guys and Happy New Year to all.
Anne and family.
Paddy ,
When I phoned Noel Barry about my name and what I was charged was in the Ryan’s report . His reply to me was and I quote (was your name spelt wrong). no help there. This is a man been paid millions of pounds to represent survivors. There has been no meetings of ROP in England since 2003.
All these groups were paid to keep the survivors under control. They were the ones who agreed to all the dirty deals
JUSTICE . We never had a chance After all this is Ireland May
PS… Nothing about us without us.
Derek
PS with regard to Jim Beresford comment on my original ‘means to and end document’ he fails to even see his own point or has even been aware of the point I was making. Maybe this time with part 2 he will, but let me remind him again anyway. Below is only part of his comment but no more comment is needed after one reads it.
“The board does not [and cannot] offer legal remedy for unlawful child imprisonment. Anyone seeking such should not sign the waiver” Please let me retort!!
I presume you meant they ‘should not’ have signed the waiver. For those that did it still does not cover wrongful imprisonment or the violation of their constitutional rights. As far as resending the detention orders or convictions themselves, that is fine for the present but does not change the past and the reflective compensation that should come with all of the above. In this forthcoming battle you would be nothing more than a stretcher bearer for the other side.
Put your slippers and pyjamas on Jim and I will read you a bedtime story. On second thoughts maybe not for you have deluded yourself long enough if your version of the Redress Act is anything to go by.
Barry Clifford email: bgclifford@iol.ie
Hello to all,
So we have moved from a position of dealing with our abusers to now dealing with abuse among the victim organisations. Where and why this has occurred now needs to be asked.
1- Why has an organisation been allowed to receive so much funding from the public purse in the name of victims without accountability?
2-Why was funding provided to a group that show no accountability to both the victims and to those who provide funds. by this I mean no minutes of group meetings?
3- In company, management directors should rotate. Why has this not happened here? Why and when has this group held an AGM to elect a new board?
4- When was the last open AGM? One that allowed company law direct the move of chance.
5- Who and why have the same board been allowed to be in place for the last 10 years and more?
6- Why have the departments involved in funding not asked for proper accountability?
7- If right of place are to be taken seriously, where are the minutes of all AGMs…. please let us see the these?
8- Please let victims see where you have spent money. This includes stating that you spent €5,000.00 on parties at Christmas.
9- This group are in danger of hurting all funds to victim groups. I ask them to declare fully and openly their accounts and accountability
In short, abuse victims are now being drawn into a terrible situation created by one group. please stop this by stepping away from this group until the reorganise and restructure. Let them show us how they have spent the millions of funds, and also please dont let one person hold onto the way we deal with victims for the sake of holding on to a JOB
Derek Power
Castleknock
Dublin
Now why didn’t I think of that?!!
http://www.stpatricksday.ie/cms/home.html
The St Patricks day parade is been set up right now. Anyone interested in parading? They are taking applications, might be an idea. Can just see Paddy Doyle with his banner ‘NOTHING ABOUT US WITHOUT US” and maybe Portia with her Banner “Show Us Your Mandate”
We can call it the “ONE MAN BAND” The marching season is upon us.
Various strands of the media are familiar with this website and visit it on a regular basis. I also have a policy of copying comments to them in the hope they will follow up on the points being made by people like yourself and many others Emer. All I can do is the best I can to bring these matters into the public domain. Bear in mind that http://www.paddydoyle.com has been online now for more than 10 years without ever having received a single cent from government or any other source..
Paddy.
I wish I had the answer to that question – the second part of it at least. Of course any group receiving monies from the Health Services Executive (HSE) should be held fully accountable for every cent that is used/spent in the name of people who were abused while in institutional care. Paddy
I always thought that it was obligatory to have accounts examined on a yearly basis at least. It seems to me that at least some groups claiming to represent survivors have gone off at a gallop and are just doing their own thing. We must have accountability – the matter is now beyond URGENT.
I haven’t forgotten. It’s a matter of getting around to doing the work. Paddy.
I wonder if the history of the HSE’s decisions were examined would a pattern of behaviour emerge consistent with an organisation populated by arch-Catholics.
We may never know since there is no law that makes it compulsory to declare membership of groups like Opus Dei and/or the Knights of Columbanus.
You have to be a Catholic to join the Knights:
http://www.knightsofstcolumbanus.ie/structure.php
Whats so secret about Opus Dei?
http://dialogueireland.wordpress.com/2009/07/20/whats-so-secret-about-opus-dei/
Last month, Senator David Norris threatened to table a motion in the Seanad demanding that all civil servants declare their membership of secret societies “such as Opus Dei and the Knights of St Columbanus”. ”If department officials are members of an organisation that is influencing their ideology, then the public have a right to know,” he told this paper. So widespread is the negative perception of Opus Dei that nobody objected to the senator’s assertion of secret handshakes, dodgy deals and inappropriate influence. There was no comment from the 700 members (which includes 19 priests) of the organisation in Ireland. Privately, however, they were outraged at the claim, but hardly surprised. An announcement by the Archbishop of Dublin last year that Opus Dei was to take over its first parish in the wealthy Dublin suburb of Mount Merrion provided further evidence of this negative perception in the reported ”angry reactions” of parishioners.
OUR MEANS TO AN END [part 2]
The Residential Redress Act in its First Section informs us what we are signing up to, its definitions, and why. Broadly and narrowly speaking in all its forked tongues it states:
1,-[1]”Abuse” in relation to the child, means–
[a] the willful physical injury of a child or failure to prevent such injury
[b] sexual arousel or sexual gratification of a child
[c]The serious impairment of the physical or mental health development of a child
[d]Any other acts or omission that results in serious adverse effects on the childs development, behaviour or welfare
ENTITLEMENT TO AWARDS
The making of an award simply put is in Section 13 [1]
[[2]You are excluded from redress if you have received an award from another court or board for the same circumstances as defined in the Redress Act
[3] In respect of other circumstances outside of the Redress Act you are not entitled to an award from the board but ‘are not prevented in seeking redress elsewhere’
[4]The making of an application to the board does not involve the waiver of any other right of action by the applicant
[6] A person found to have given false evidence to the board shall be guilty of perjury and the penalties thereof which includes prison
Later it states: On acceptance of an award you agree to discontinue any other actions against any persons or public body in the act that arise out of the circumstance of your case that you have before the board
Section 24,- Where an applicant has accepted an award under the Redress Act under First Section and complied with its terms prevents you from seeking same from other court actions
CONCLUSION
Again as outlined and high lighted in the original Means To An End Document no reference is made to the wrongful imprisonment or the violation of our constitutional rights in the Redress Act. But the haste in the inacting of the bill and the accepting of it by all parties, both state and the victims has given us that opening. That rush to legislation fueled by a race to conclusion designed to pervert the course of justice, and perversely did just that by helping us instead. The worse part is no one noticed and for those that did were encouraged to stay quite because of the fear that they would receive no compensation at all. The Redress Act is all about abuse in the institutions but not the institutions themselves, or the illegality of them and the violation of your constitutional rights. It is worth noting we were sent there under the 1908 act and not under any amendments of that act. The industrial/reformatory acts themselves, though they had two different posting of them, neither one had invalidated the other for neither act had been recinded or amended. Even with that both postings of the act does not mitigate our cases any less. Remarkably even survivors, well intentioned or not believe it does, along with a few not so remarkable solicators. Awareness is the key. There is no defence in what they intended to do but a very real case in what they did. Part 3 will be soon and involves the illegality of the Redress Act itself which directly violates the constitution and yet again our rights under it.
Barry Clifford email: bgclifford@iol.ie
Paddy, this all sounds familiar.
Do I detect a little group CP operating behind the scenes as they have taken over HSE, yet few know the truth.
Not acceptable. If this group is receiving public money they can’t refuse to answer questions on that money and on how it is distributed.
It’s very worrying too that they’ve received UNKNOWN AMOUNTS of funding from bishops and religious orders – two groups of people known for the criminal proclivity in regards to the protection of children.
I’m wondering if other groups – in particular SOCA (Ireland) and Michael O’Brien’s group – have received similar types of funding?
This is, of course, in relation to their ‘solo run’ or secret talks with the gang of bishops in Maynooth. Did money exchange hands at this meeting – did the promise of money appear on the agenda?
The 8 other representative groups who were excluded from this secret meeting, including Aislinn and SOCA UK, are still awaiting the minutes of what was discussed with these bishops – it should be noted here that Right of Place were also reported to have been represented at this secret meeting.
How much money have these people, known for their criminal proclivities, given to so-called representative groups … and for what purpose?
Paddy, what about those headings we discussed? Don’t forget to have a chat with him. Keep safe and warm! Brrr!
It is high time that EVERY GROUP is investigated as you can bet that anyone trying to replace these groups (currently it’s the Cork ‘committee’) wants to feather their own nests. These purported group leaders are well aware their days are numbered but lest we forget we will get this information out in the public domain and questions that have been asked over the decade will now have to be satisfactorily answered. Should they be found wanting, I will be asking that the full force of the law is applied as they are no better than the abusers who blighted our earlier years. I will be expecting a lot of support as I know here in the South East people are very antsy and want to mobilise and let the goverment know how they feel. The infighting going on amongst themselves is ludicrous. Accusations have been made where some female has been assaulted by a group leader – are these the people we need representing us? Blood was spilled by a committee. member on a survivor following a meeting in Cork and that brute wants to take over in Noel Barry’s place. Close all the groups down and let the survivors democratically one group to represent ALL of us equally! Perhaps this is a tad unrealistic but let’s have a go at it and see what IS possible.
Is now time for all the Group Leaders to have their accounts examined and be made accountable for the monies received from the Government and Religious.
We have been asking for this for a very long time.
Why the HSE .??. Why not the Gardai .?. (Irish Police)
RIGHT PADDY DOYLE
I’ve had it
I’m sick and I’m tired of these double crossing crooks down there in Cork and in other counties across the Island of Ireland, lying to the HSE and the Department of Education telling them they represent us. Well Paddy they do not represent me and what they did to that poor unfortunate 60 year old woman is beyond me.
Paddy something has to be done, can’t you ring up the media and tell them what’s going on
It’s a disgrace
I’m sick and tired of the whole carry on
Crooks double crossing crooks