The founder of the Console charity and his wife and son ran up credit card bills of almost half a million euro.

The money was spent on groceries, designer clothes and foreign trips.

The figures have been revealed following an audit by the HSE.

Details of a HSE audit of the console books revealed on Prime Time last night show company credit cards were used for trips to Australia, New Zealand and Singapore.

They were also used to pay for dental work, tickets to rugby matches and designer brands like Hugo Boss and Ralph Lauren.

The audit shows console founder Paul Kelly and his wife Patricia and their son Tim got a further half a million euro in salaries and cars between 2012 and 2014

The trio held 11 of the charity's 20 credit cards. During the period under review nearly 90,000 in cash was withdrawn on the credit cards. 66,000 of that cash was was withdrawn by Paul Kelly himself, but there's no documentation to show how the cash was used.

Mr Kelly who resigned as Chief executive of Console last week has denied allegations of mismanagement.