Ahern denies 'pulling plug' on victims

The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, has rejected Labour Party allegations that the Government was "pulling the plug" on One in Four, the organisation that deals with victims of abuse.

The Labour leader, Mr Pat Rabbitte, said that the Taoiseach was prepared in the name of the State to "foot the entire bill for the costs of redress" to survivors of abuse.

But how could the same Government that was "so generous-minded and open-handed with taxpayers' money have caused redundancy notices to be issued to the staff of One in Four".

The Taoiseach also said there would be a meeting later this week between the One in Four director, Mr Colm O'Gorman, and Department of Health officials.

The Fine Gael leader, Mr Enda Kenny, had asked about Mr O'Gorman's meeting with the Taoiseach's special programme manager after the organisation received an unauthenticated phone call advising Mr O'Gorman, who had been critical of the Government, to "keep quiet".

Mr Kenny said the Taoiseach's manager said the call did not come from the Taoiseach's office and could have come from the Department of Health or Education.

Mr Ahern said he would have to check if there was a follow-up, but later said that Mr O'Gorman had met his programme manager and was critical of Department of Health officials.

The Taoiseach's programme adviser had listened to Mr O'Gorman's complaints and discussed the matter with the Minister for Health.

Mr Ahern said, however, that the organisation, which announced on Monday that it would have to close at the end of October, had been provided with funding of €633,000.

Some €208,000 had been made available to its UK-based operation, and €425,000 was granted to the organisation in Ireland. Of that, €302,000 related to staff salaries, pensions, expenses and training, while the remainder related to the costs of premises and volunteers.

He said there was never any agreement in place to fund counselling provided by One in Four.

As regards counselling costs, "information was sought from One in Four regarding the service it intended to provide. The organisation agreed to forward this information but it was never received by the Department of Health."