Mr. Joe O'Flynn:

The first thing we did following the trustees’ report was to make a rule change which we brought to our biennial conference in 2011, which was the first opportunity we had, to the effect that no account bearing the name SIPTU or associated with it could be set up within the organisation without the express approval and authorisation of the national executive council of the union. The second thing we did was to conduct an internal review of our mechanisms and systems in place. Third, we had an external review.

We made significant changes to the oversight of levy funds. Previous to that, levy funds would have been completely outside the scope of the union’s accounts or records. After the rule change all such levy funds now have to be approved by way of new standing orders, which include oversight within the organisation by way of internal and external audit. Any fund, regardless of its title or how it is funded, either by way of levy or membership contribution, is now subject to internal and external audit within the organisation. That is a significant change to the procedures we implemented.