Kenny should ‘man up’ and save Childline

Ryan Tubridy has urged Taoiseach Enda Kenny to "man up" and "have the decency" to find the money to save the Childline 24-hour helpline for children in crisis.

The RTÉ star, who is also a longstanding Irish Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children (ISPCC) ambassador, said it was “mildly sickening” that the helpline night service, which has received almost 40,000 calls so far this year faced closure.

So far, the charity has raised about €330,000 but needs to find another €870,000 to retain the 24-hour service.

Speaking on his radio show, Mr Tubridy said the Taoiseach needed to “man up” and find the money, which for the Government is “probably the equivalent of 20c on a given week”.

“That’s where the Taoiseach needs to come in. We don’t see too much of him but it’s time to man up, stand up to this thing and put your hand in your pocket at a governmental level and get these people out of a hole so children aren’t spending the next four or five weeks getting an engaged signal at their end of their phone when they’re in trouble. It’s mildly sickening but with any luck it’ll be sorted,” he said.

The Late Late Show host said the least the Taoiseach could do was “have the decency” at Christmas to fund the only dedicated 24-hour helpline for children.

“Hopefully, this isn’t a dark stain on this Government’s copybook and that they sort this out at this time of year. It can’t be that much of a problem for them financially and the least he could do is have the decency to confront the issue and fix it,” he said.

Mr Tubridy’s intervention comes after Childline volunteer and fundraiser Monica Rowe decided to write to the Taoiseach earlier this week to express her anger after hearing that an extra €2m in funding could be found to prevent the closure of some of the country’s best-known museums, but not to help Childline.

Ms Rowe wrote that she was struck by the “deafening silence” that met the charity in response to its funding call, especially in light of Mr Kenny’s promise after the publication of the Cloyne Report in 2011 to ensure the safety of children was a national priority.

ISPCC interim chief executive Caroline O’Sullivan said the charity has sent Children’s Minister James Reilly a proposal on the need for funding for the service and has recently requested to meet the minister again as it has received no commitment to funding.

A spokesman for the minister said the ISPCC’s proposal was currently “under consideration”.