Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Thursday, 17 October 2024
Public Accounts Committee
Financial Statements 2023 - Charities Regulatory Authority
9:30 am
Ms Madeleine Delaney:
We try to keep adding the items of information to the annual report form, which is where we can set out what information needs to be produced, and, obviously, we display that. Besides that, we very much encourage charities to disclose all this information on their websites and more. It is interesting that the Deputy should mention the CEO salaries in relation to trust and confidence, because that is out there, but the top reason for maybe not having as much trust and confidence in charities as they would otherwise that is given by members of the public when we do surveys - we do a biannual survey - is the lack of transparency from charities. Really, the CEO issue is a subset of people feeling overall that charities are not producing the information they want - not just financial. People actually want to know the stories about what has gone on. They really do. That gives them a sense that they are making a difference with their money. It is all tied up in the one. Charities perhaps would benefit more from being very open and transparent about this and taking on board any feedback because in this case people will vote with their money. That is how it will be managed.