It means, to me at least, that she knows what she's writing about!
Prime Time will have a programme on charities including Peter McVerry tonight
- Thread starter odyssey06
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It means, to me at least, that she knows what she's writing about!
Howth Head
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I see the Gardai are investigating the PMcV Trust to ascertain if there are any criminal activities involved arising out of the recent findings.
I often wonder if a Trump style review of all NGOs is warranted at this stage. So many of them appear to have serious "governance" issues ( a term that seems to cover a multitude of sins.) Plus, they all seem to get an easy ride from the media - especially RTE/Irish Times etc who they regularly feed with countless "reports" gaining impressive headlines with a heavy lobbying element.
www.independent.ie
I often wonder if a Trump style review of all NGOs is warranted at this stage. So many of them appear to have serious "governance" issues ( a term that seems to cover a multitude of sins.) Plus, they all seem to get an easy ride from the media - especially RTE/Irish Times etc who they regularly feed with countless "reports" gaining impressive headlines with a heavy lobbying element.
‘Criminal threshold’ assessment being carried out into Peter McVerry Trust
Senior gardaí are carrying out an assessment into alleged failings in governance and financial management by the Peter McVerry Trust (PMVT).
www.independent.ie
To be fair the problem is that many of these charities were run for years by armies of part time volunteers. They gradually started professionalising in the 1990s and eventually started hiring professional full time management staff. The people in the front end jobs tend to be poorly paid and don't often have great conditions of work. But the management in the sector seem very entitled.
For example one charity spends about 1.7m per year, up from 700k around 20 years ago. They now have roughly 22 FTE. About 1.3m comes from the state and the rest from donations or fund raising. Their 5 highest paid senior management earn about 400k between them, but in 2004, their former director was being paid 80k per year at a time the entire expenditure was only 700k. So its clear that this charity has far better governance and controls than it did 20 years ago. And interestingly, that original director went on to be a controversially high earner in another charity, whose direction he drastically changed under his leadership, much to the chagrin of many former supporters and as the link shows, there was considerable disquiet about his earnings.
To be fair the situation has changed a lot since high earning charity executives were being dragged into Leinster House to be theatrically grilled by the PAC. But in general a lot of the issue is that charities are far bigger now and are no longer operated by voluntary supporters. The bitter rows in some organisations like the Irish Countrywomens Association are a good example of this struggle to cope with the size of the structure and need for good governance.
For example one charity spends about 1.7m per year, up from 700k around 20 years ago. They now have roughly 22 FTE. About 1.3m comes from the state and the rest from donations or fund raising. Their 5 highest paid senior management earn about 400k between them, but in 2004, their former director was being paid 80k per year at a time the entire expenditure was only 700k. So its clear that this charity has far better governance and controls than it did 20 years ago. And interestingly, that original director went on to be a controversially high earner in another charity, whose direction he drastically changed under his leadership, much to the chagrin of many former supporters and as the link shows, there was considerable disquiet about his earnings.
To be fair the situation has changed a lot since high earning charity executives were being dragged into Leinster House to be theatrically grilled by the PAC. But in general a lot of the issue is that charities are far bigger now and are no longer operated by voluntary supporters. The bitter rows in some organisations like the Irish Countrywomens Association are a good example of this struggle to cope with the size of the structure and need for good governance.
Howth Head
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Another NGO/Charity under the spotlight. Three separate investigations no less!
www.independent.ie
This latest development means there are now three separate probes going on into the activities at the charity, formerly known as the National Council for the Blind of Ireland (NCBI) – the Charities Regulator investigation, the HSE review into matters of concern and a fact-finding exercise by the organisation itself.
The Charities Regulator is also carrying out a separate investigation into another charity for blind people, Fighting Blindness. The various probes all follow information provided by whistleblowers.
Crisis deepens at Vision Ireland as HSE now investigates whistleblower claims
The HSE is investigating allegations of financial and corporate governance issues at the country’s leading charity for blind people.
www.independent.ie
This latest development means there are now three separate probes going on into the activities at the charity, formerly known as the National Council for the Blind of Ireland (NCBI) – the Charities Regulator investigation, the HSE review into matters of concern and a fact-finding exercise by the organisation itself.
The Charities Regulator is also carrying out a separate investigation into another charity for blind people, Fighting Blindness. The various probes all follow information provided by whistleblowers.
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I bet they didn't see that coming.
Maybe it's time for State agencies to actually do their job rather than outsource their responsibilities to so-called charities.
Agreed, but then some of those state agencies are actually charities with a Charity Regulator number, something I have never understood as to why?
I was aware of charities, mainly within the healthcare sector, which receive most of their funding from the State and whose employees are on the same sort of contracts as State employees but I wasn't aware of any that are actual charities.
There are 11500 charities registered in Ireland, the HSE is probably the largest followed by Tusla
Sonraí Carthanachta
In this section, you can find useful information on how to search for a charity and how to raise a concern. You can also review ‘Our News’ to find out about our activities and events.
www.charitiesregulator.ie
Ok. Looking at the legislation, a "charitable organisation" is required to register. And a "charitable organisation" includes any body that promotes a charitable purpose only, uses all its property in furtherance of that purposes (and for its own operations, maintenance and staff costs) and doesn't distribute any of its property to its members. "Charitable purpose" includes the relief of poverty/economic hardship, the advancement of education, the advancement of religion, or "any other purpose that is of benefit to the community". There is no carve-out for bodies that are established by the State.
The provision of healthcare to the public is a charitable purpose; it's of benefit to the community. The HSE uses all its property for that purpose; it doesn't pay dividends to the Minister. So, it's a charitable organisation and is obliged to register. Similarly for Tusla, I guess.
It's maybe a bit surprising that there is no carve-out for public bodies. But maybe the thinking is that all agencies promoting a charitable purpose should be subject to the same regulatory regime; why should state bodies get an exemption?
On the suggestion that . . .
But we could leave out "Trump-style" and consider whether an evidence-led, competent review of all NGOs is warranted.
Still no, I think. The argument offered in favour is that "so many of them appear to have serious governance issues" but as Peanuts20 points out there are 11,500 registered charities (and there will be many other NGOs that are not registered charities). A review of all of them looks like it would be massively expensive; the cost of the tribunals of enquiry that we've had before would be chickenfeed by comparison. Plus the "so many" agencies that actually have serious issues is probably a tiny, tiny percentage of 11,500.
There may or may not be action required here but, if there is, it's much, much more focussed action than a review of all NGOs.
The provision of healthcare to the public is a charitable purpose; it's of benefit to the community. The HSE uses all its property for that purpose; it doesn't pay dividends to the Minister. So, it's a charitable organisation and is obliged to register. Similarly for Tusla, I guess.
It's maybe a bit surprising that there is no carve-out for public bodies. But maybe the thinking is that all agencies promoting a charitable purpose should be subject to the same regulatory regime; why should state bodies get an exemption?
On the suggestion that . . .
. . . a "Trump-style review" of anything strikes me as a really, really bad idea. The Trump-style reviews that the Trump administration is conducting have all been uniformly shambolic.
But we could leave out "Trump-style" and consider whether an evidence-led, competent review of all NGOs is warranted.
Still no, I think. The argument offered in favour is that "so many of them appear to have serious governance issues" but as Peanuts20 points out there are 11,500 registered charities (and there will be many other NGOs that are not registered charities). A review of all of them looks like it would be massively expensive; the cost of the tribunals of enquiry that we've had before would be chickenfeed by comparison. Plus the "so many" agencies that actually have serious issues is probably a tiny, tiny percentage of 11,500.
There may or may not be action required here but, if there is, it's much, much more focussed action than a review of all NGOs.
SFAIK registration as a charity doesn't automatically entitle you to tax relief; the Revenue make up their own mind about whether your activities qualify for any kind of relief. But anyone who does qualify for charitable tax relief is probably also required by the Charities Act 2009 to register.
Coillte (and other semi-states) aren't charitable because they are required to operate commercially; they are supposed to aim to generate a profit and to distribute that to shareholders (the Minister for Finance) as a dividend.
Perhaps the benefit of enabling tax-efficient charitable donations might be a driver.
Yeah, that was what I was getting at, there are a number of operations that the public might view as arms of the Government but which are actually incorporated companies rather than. under the direct management of the relevant department.
I think the first "stepping stone" would be for the Regulator to break down what are Govt agencies and quangos with a charity number, and what are non Govt agencies.
In terms of the Govt ones, there should be a review of all to see if mergers are possible to get better value for money. However in my mind, the C&AG should be reviewing and providing oversight for these ones and not the Charity Regulator. The Regulator should be spending it's time on "genuine" charities, ones we all think are a charity and not those which are quangos
I agree with you but it does strike me as ironic that the strongest argument against looking into the inefficiencies and waste in the charities sector is the inefficiency and wastefulness inherent in the mechanism we have to conduct such an enquiry.
"The cost of saving money is too great". That's like something Joseph Heller would write.
There are numerous charities engaged in providing care for sick and disabled children. The HSE has, in recent years, taken over the running of a few of the larger ones. Since doing so their costs have gone up and the level of services they provide have gone down. That's the sort of thing that springs to mind.
There are benefits to having a variety of providers of social and health care.
Building a New Relationship between Voluntary Organisations and the State in the Health and Social Care Sectors - National Economic & Social Council
The Dialogue Forum with Voluntary Organisations was established by the Minister of Health in 2019 with the aim of building a stronger working relationship between the State and the voluntary healthcare sector for the benefit of patients and service users and to facilitate regular dialogue with...
I suspect every AHB, most primary schools (excl. ETB) and many secondary schools (excl. ETB) is a registered charity.
None of them were established by the State.