{"id":553146,"date":"2026-06-25T08:40:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T08:40:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/553146\/"},"modified":"2026-06-25T08:40:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T08:40:09","slug":"government-accused-of-role-in-alleged-campaign-to-undermine-fundraising-for-mitchell-fund-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/553146\/","title":{"rendered":"Government accused of role in alleged campaign to undermine fundraising for Mitchell fund \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The head of a prestigious Irish-American scholarship has accused the Government<\/a> of engaging in a \u201cbaseless whispering campaign\u201d designed to scupper its chances of raising private funds. <\/p>\n

Relations between the programme, formally known as the George Mitchell<\/a> Scholarship, and the Coalition have deteriorated during a long-running dispute over funding. <\/p>\n

The Department of Further and Higher Education<\/a> said the programme wants $32 million in public funds before it will agree to continue the scholarship, a sum the department does not believe is feasible.<\/p>\n

Trina Vargo, founder of the US-Ireland Alliance, claimed she has been subject to a \u201cbaseless whispering campaign\u201d and \u201cfalse and slanderous\u201d allegations from the Government, which she believes are designed to damage the fund\u2019s ability to attract investors. <\/p>\n

In April, Vargo submitted her annual report for the fund to the department. It included six pages written by Vargo on \u201crecent issues\u201d which were removed before the final report was published by the Oireachtas<\/a>. <\/p>\n

In the unpublished version, Vargo said that if a new source of funding was not found soon the scholarship programme \u201cwill inevitably end\u201d. She claimed the fund had faced \u201cresistance from some civil servants, diplomats and a couple of politicians\u201d. She said a \u201cbaseless whispering campaign has persisted throughout the program\u2019s life\u201d. She also said a named Government official had made a \u201cfalse and slanderous\u201d claim about the fund. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe repeated, negative insinuations are meant to dissuade others from supporting this program.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vargo said the scholarship would continue to seek funding, but \u201cif interest is insufficient and the necessary financial support cannot be secured, we will bring the program to a close\u201d. <\/p>\n

The scholarship programme was set up in 1998 and named after Mitchell, a US senator who played a central role in the signing of the Belfast Agreement<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Vargo, a former Democratic foreign policy adviser who played a behind-the-scenes role in the peace process, removed Mitchell\u2019s name from the scholarship earlier this year. Mitchell\u2019s name was included in a tranche of files relating to paedophile Jeffrey Epstein<\/a> which were released by the US department of justice. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Mitchell Scholars programme \u2018faces closure unless reliable funding can be secured\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

From 2000 to last year, 12 postgraduate students a year were chosen from about 300 applicants to spend a year studying in Ireland or Northern Ireland. The scholarship was funded from a mix of public and private donations, including a contribution from the Irish Government. <\/p>\n

In 2014, the US department of state cut its funding to the programme and in 2015 annual funding was also withdrawn by Stormont\u2019s department for employment and learning. <\/p>\n

In March 2024 the fund announced that it would not be selecting a class this year due to concerns about its long-term funding. A class of 2027 will also not be chosen. <\/p>\n

The decision to pause the scholarship, made by the fund, was described as \u2018unilateral\u2019 by the Department of Further and Higher Education, and 2024 was the last year that the department provided funding. <\/p>\n

According to its most recent accounts, laid before the Oireachtas this week, the Mitchell Scholarship Fund had total net assets of $10.4 million at the end of last year. This included $7.3 million in total contributions from the Irish Government. According to its annual report, the annual budget for the scholarship is $1 million. <\/p>\n

In a statement, the department said it had \u201cengaged extensively\u201d with the US-Ireland Alliance since 2024, but \u201cdiscussions have not resulted in agreement as the alliance is seeking $32 million in public funds to recommence\u201d the scholarships. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe department remains open to engagement with the alliance to restart the programme on the basis of a feasible funding model consistent with its governing legislation,\u201d it said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The head of a prestigious Irish-American scholarship has accused the Government of engaging in a \u201cbaseless whispering campaign\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":553147,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[41],"tags":[23936,9,10,93790,13,14,160862,3428,6,15098,11,12,15,16,5,954,7,8,384,65,66,67],"class_list":["post-553146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","tag-belfast-agreement","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-department-of-further-and-higher-education-research-innovation-and-science","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-george-mitchell","tag-government","tag-headlines","tag-jeffrey-epstein","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-news","tag-northern-ireland","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories","tag-united-states","tag-world","tag-world-news","tag-worldnews"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116809854164828058","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=553146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553146\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/553147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=553146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=553146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=553146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}