ST VINCENT DE Paul has announced that it has cancelled a cheque it gave to a young man to secure his college place after he posted a picture of it with a pint on social media.
A spokesman for the charity apologised for the incident on Radio Kerry today, after the man posted the image of himself with the cheque on Instagram with the caption: “That’s me sorted for the Listowel Races”.
The man received the cheque after telling the society’s education conference that he needed funding to go to college, but feared losing his place if he didn’t pay his fees on time.
St Vincent de Paul regional president for Cork and Kerry, Christy Lynch, told Radio Kerry that the society usually pays money directly to educational bodies.
However, the charity issued the cheque directly to the man instead, as it believed the issue was a time-sensitive matter and could be addressed more quickly if it did so.
“We have a system where we have an educational committee who decides who gets what and how much they get,” Lynch said.
“The conference, at the time, made the decision that they made and gave him what he was looking for.”
He also said the individual involved had “a rush of blood to the head”, but that he and his family were now “very upset” over the incident, which caused anger locally.
“It was just a silly thing to do,” Lynch said, before confirming that the cheque has now been cancelled and apologising on behalf of the charity.
He said: “I’ll tell you what, he’s not gone to the races anyway…and all I can say is that if people are upset on behalf of the region, I apologise for any upset this has caused.”
Lynch added that the individual involved will have to re-apply for the money, and that such an incident has never happened to the charity in the region before.
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