{"id":646628,"date":"2026-10-06T16:30:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-06T16:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/646628\/"},"modified":"2026-10-06T16:30:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T16:30:08","slug":"hiv-ireland-quit-hse-programme-due-to-slagging-and-claims-of-corruption-wrc-told-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/646628\/","title":{"rendered":"HIV Ireland quit HSE programme due to \u2018slagging\u2019 and claims of corruption, WRC told \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

HIV Ireland pulled out of the launch of the HSE<\/a>\u2019s You, Me and HIV programme last year because of online \u201cslagging\u201d and claims by the campaign\u2019s ambassadors that there was \u201ccorruption\u201d at the charity, its chief executive has said.<\/p>\n

Stephen O\u2019Hare was under cross-examination on Monday at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC)<\/a>, where the charity is defending a complaint of whistleblower penalisation brought by veteran manager Erin Nugent. <\/p>\n

Nugent, who has worked at the charity since 1995, is facing disciplinary action, currently on hold, after being accused of bullying and harassment toward colleagues and insubordination towards O\u2019Hare. <\/p>\n

Her trade union, F\u00f3rsa<\/a>, says this is to \u201cpunish\u201d her for voicing concerns about HIV Ireland\u2019s financial governance, and alleged discontent with the charity among the community of people living with HIV. <\/p>\n

In addition to the disciplinary action, which the charity said was on \u201cpause\u201d pending the outcome of Nugent\u2019s Protected Disclosures Act 2014 complaint, she maintains she has been \u201cdisappeared\u201d as the public face of HIV Ireland. <\/p>\n

Counsel for the charity Aoife McMahon said Nugent was only prevented from attending one related event: the launch of a HSE programme to combat stigma and misinformation about HIV, in January 2025 called You, Me and HIV. <\/p>\n

The organisation disputes Nugent\u2019s claim that she has been \u201cdisappeared\u201d as the public face of HIV Ireland at conferences and in the press as penalisation for whistleblowing. <\/p>\n

O\u2019Hare\u2019s evidence was that following World Aids Day on December 1st, 2024, the charity was subject to \u201ccommentary\u201d from a number of members of the public and activists.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were alleging corruption, misappropriation of funds, alleging fraud at the organisation, and the people doing that were the people who were engaged by the HSE in their own publicity campaign, You, Me and HIV,\u201d O\u2019Hare said. <\/p>\n

The comments were \u201cvery nasty\u201d and \u201cbordering on personally offensive\u201d, he said. <\/p>\n

HIV Ireland staff, including Nugent, were due to participate in a launch event for the HSE campaign on January 15th, 2025, he said. <\/p>\n

O\u2019Hare decided HIV Ireland would not participate in the HSE campaign in view of the fact its ambassadors were \u201copenly slagging\u201d his staff and organisation, he said. <\/p>\n

He said he told the HSE the day before the launch: \u201cYour ambassadors for your campaign are currently on social media saying defamatory things about HIV Ireland; they shouldn\u2019t be doing that.\u201d The HSE was \u201cunhappy\u201d with HIV Ireland\u2019s stance, he added. <\/p>\n

O\u2019Hare\u2019s evidence was that in late 2024, other HIV Ireland staff had come to him about interactions they had with Nugent where financial matters were discussed. <\/p>\n

He had earlier in the year urged the charity\u2019s board to take disciplinary action against Nugent, writing in a letter that he believed her to be engaged in \u201cborderline insubordination\u201d and \u201cbullying behaviour\u201d, the tribunal heard. <\/p>\n

Cross-examining O\u2019Hare, Louise O\u2019Hara of F\u00f3rsa, for Nugent, said: \u201cYou essentially presided over the decline of relations and functions and used it to bring disciplinary action against a whistleblower\u2026 you massively overstepped to punish Dr Nugent.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cNo, none of what you said there is correct,\u201d the chief executive said. <\/p>\n

Adjudication officer Breiffni O\u2019Neill has concluded hearings on the case and told the parties he intends to issue his decision in January. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HIV Ireland pulled out of the launch of the HSE\u2019s You, Me and HIV programme last year because…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":646629,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[1555,103,2120,61,60,6465],"class_list":["post-646628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-forsa","tag-health","tag-hse","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-workplace-relations-commission"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=646628"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646628\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/646629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=646628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=646628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=646628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}