Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

-----the early weeks of my period in office. I am not aware of any governance issues that have given rise to the resignation of the treasurer. People resign from positions of responsibility in voluntary organisations for all sorts of reasons and it would be most unfortunate were the Deputy, by a loose comment, to damage the reputation of the Red Cross by suggesting there is a difficulty of which I am unaware. If the Deputy is aware of some current governance difficulty, he is welcome to share it with me but I should draw to the Deputy's attention that the changes the society made to its rules and constitution during my period of office were approved unanimously by the joint statutes commission of the International Committee of the Red Cross, as well as the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent societies.

As a consequence of the changes made, the Head of Governance Support at the international federation wrote to the Irish Red Cross congratulating the society "for its continued efforts in revising its legal base" and confirmed that the changes the society had made are in conformity with the requirements of Geneva's Guidance for National Societies Statutes. It also confirmed "that the revised draft constitution has at this stage rightly addressed the areas that are important for a well-functioning national society". I draw to the Deputy's attention that those events occurred subsequent to my becoming Minister for Defence and following my meeting with members of the Irish Red Cross so as to ensure that governance difficulties were addressed.

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