Jimmy Deenihan (Kerry North, Fine Gael)

The problems of the Irish Red Cross Society are systemic and appear to be escalating. It is not today or yesterday that these problems were made public. In 1999, a group of Irish Red Cross Society employees went public on RTE about them. That is a long time ago. In the period since then, five secretaries general have retired or resigned. In an international rating of Red Cross Societies across the world, the Irish Red Cross Society was given a mark of four, with one being the best and five the worst. Does the Minister not consider it a cause for concern that in the past six months three Government appointees and one Government employee have resigned from the Irish Red Cross Society? They are distinguished people: Mr. David Andrews, Judge Rory McCabe, barrister Ms Jenny Bulbulia and a highly respected civil servant whom all Members have encountered in the course of his work, Mr. John Roycroft. This is surely worthy of investigation. I call on the Taoiseach, who is now the acting Minister for Defence, to initiate such an investigation immediately. It could be conducted by a high ranking official of his Department or of the Department of Defence, but it must be done.

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