Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

The last 12 months have been very tough for charities, particularly charities that normally fundraise outdoors or at events. They have been badly hit. One thinks, for example, of the Irish Cancer Society's annual daffodil day appeal which is coming up next month. It is likely to be greatly affected. We need to do all we can to support charities and promote charitable giving at this time.

At the same time, however, we need to make sure we do not forget the lessons learned in recent years about problems in charities relating to governance, accounting practices and excessively high salaries being paid. I am thinking in particular about recent comments by the Charities Regulator, Ms Helen Martin, on a Bar Council webinar, where she warned that too many charities are rushing to appoint highly-paid CEOs before they have engaged in any proper fundraising at all. There was a case of a charity that wanted to appoint a CEO at €150,000 without any money yet raised by it. Often in these cases the CEO is the only full-time employee. Groups seem to think about employing highly paid staff before they have even mapped out their governance or focus. Ms Martin said an amendment to the legislation was needed to require full disclosure of salaries in accounts. I was surprised to hear such provision did not exist in law. Maybe I should have known that.There was coverage recently of an advocacy group which received more than €300,000 from the HSE in 2019, despite the fact it had failed to produce audited accounts for that year. In excess of €200,000 has been committed to that group for 2021 and still no accounts have been provided for 2019. How is this acceptable? Where is the accountability for taxpayers' money? One reason we give money to voluntary and charitable groups is so they can put the proper accounting practices in place. We need a debate on this sector with the Minister for Justice and the Minister for Rural and Community Development and we need to look at changes to the law to provide for two things: transparency around salaries in this sector and proper accounting compliance as a condition of getting State funding.